Little Man, the guard llama with a big heart

He was called Little Man, a white llama with gentle brown eyes, and he took his guard job seriously. When the recent Cajon Pass brush fire roared through Hesperia rancher Bruce Schumacher's 10-acre property, the llama protected his flock of about 30 red sheep with his own body. He suffered smoke inhalation and singed eyelids, feet and rib area; his thick, woolly coat had burned off. But he saved his sheep. Every one of them. In the end, however, the heroics appear to have cost Little Man his life. Schumacher said Sunday that his llama has died, despite his veterinarian's prognosis that he would fully recover. He speculated that Little Man, who died Thursday, had suffered fatal damage to his lungs from the smoke inhalation. "He sacrificed his life for his sheep," Schumacher said, choking up. "He'll always be a hero to me."...more