No matter where you are in Saskatchewan, it’s common to see a dog sticking its head out a window of a moving vehicle.
Seeing an alpaca in its place is completely out of the norm, but not if you’re living in Regina.
If you happened to be driving down Broad Street last week, you may have been lucky enough to see it in person — a furry, friendly alpaca named Chewy sticking its head out the back seat window of a truck.
Josef Buttigieg, owner of Fenek Farms just outside the Queen City, was visiting clients, bringing Chewy along for the ride.
“At Tom’s Independent we pick up groceries that we use as chicken feed. At Rebellion, we take their spent grain, and again, we use it to feed our animals,” Buttigieg said.
“We figured we would bring the animals to them and show exactly who their stuff is going to feed.”
Buttigieg said it was also a great way to cheer up staff, giving him the idea to take a different way home.
“I’m bringing joy and happiness to these stores. I thought, ‘what if I just drive down Albert Street and Victoria Avenue and take the long way back to the farm?’” Buttigieg said.
“Drive up through the middle of the city instead of taking Ring Road and see how many shocked faces I get.”
It didn’t take long for Chewy to garner some attention. A video was taken and shared to TikTok, where it received close to 35,000 views.
Shared on other social media sites, Buttigieg said it’s been viewed over 120,000 times.
“Some people actually know I tend to do things like this so they tagged and that’s how I became aware it. From there, it just completely blew up,” Buttigieg said.
“It’s a good thing because you see the comments and people are laughing, which is exactly what I wanted at the end of the day.”
Raquel Klassen took the video and said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing at the time.
“I kind of slapped my friend’s arm and said ‘oh my gosh is that an alpaca?’ She laughed and said ‘no, that’s got to be a shaggy dog!” Klassen said.
“We both laughed to the point of tears and I quickly grabbed my phone because we figured no one would believe us if we just told them we saw an alpaca chilling in a normal pickup truck.
“I didn’t expect it to blow up though like it did. I’m just happy it’s been able to bring a ton of smiles to the people of Saskatchewan.”
It’s not the first time he travelled with an alpaca in the back seat and won’t be his last. He’s encouraging drivers and passengers to watch out for one of his many furry friends.
Chewy lives with another alpaca named Babe on Fenek Frams, along with many other farm animals.
Fenek Farms is a working farm that features a petting zoo, hay rides, farm tours along with country bike tours and country picnics.
It is operating under restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. For more information, visit the Fenek Farms website.
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