TomKat + TomKitten = Alpaca?

Suri_Alpaca_Jebidiah
Originally uploaded by veryapeaz.

Every day I receive dozens of press releases from various agencies hawking a client, a product, a service, etc. Everybody wants free press. I delete 99% of them after reading the first two sentences.

Honestly, why would Echo readers care about tantric sex books (written for the discriminating heterosexual) or office romances flourishing. Most of them are a big stretch.

Today I received one that had me laughing out loud. But at the same time I thought it was very clever of this person. The PR lady who wrote this should receive an award for most inventive tie-in to Pop Culture.

Here's the release:
THE RARE AND BEAUTIFUL SURI
∑ that has been around for thousands of years!

It is now well-known that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes became parents to a beautiful baby girl on Tuesday, April 18, named Suri. The name Suri has origins in Hebrew, meaning "Princess" or in Persian, meaning "Red Rose". However, a Suri is also another rare and beautiful creature. One that has been around for thousands of years.

A Suri is a type of alpaca. Alpacas, cousins to the llama, are native to the Andean Mountain range of South America, particularly Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Once an Incan civilization treasure, alpacas provided clothing and transportation. Their luxurious fleece was reserved for royalty and was known as the "fiber of gods".

There are two types of alpacas in the United States today. Although almost physically identical, what distinguishes the two types of alpacas is their fiber. The Huacaya (wa-Ki'-ah) is the more common of the two and has a fluffy, extremely fine coat. The Suri is the rarer of the two and has fiber that is silky and resembles pencil-locks.

The rare Suri represents less than 10% of the over 65,000 registered alpacas in the United States.

Adult Suri alpacas stand at approximately 36 inches at the withers and generally weigh between 150 and 200 pounds. They do not have horns, hooves, claws or incisors. Alpacas are alert, intelligent, curious, and predictable. Social animals that seek companionship, Suris communicate most commonly by softly humming.

Fencing is not a huge issue because Suri alpacas don't challenge fences. Alpacas require minimal acreage and food.

Making Suri alpacas even more attractive is their child-friendly nature. Though easy to manage, as with any livestock, children should always be properly supervised while working with alpacas.

Offering a high degree of personal satisfaction, Suri owners, breeders and enthusiasts believe these animals are ideal for small farms.

Suris are shorn, without harm, every twelve to eighteen months. They produced five to ten pounds of luxurious fiber. Long ago, alpaca fiber was reserved for royalty. Today it is purchased in its raw fleece form by hand-spinners and fiber artists. Knitters buy it as yarn.

Because of its soft texture, Suri fiber is sometimes compared to cashmere. Making Suri fiber even more coveted, it has the luster of silk. Suri is longer in length than most other fibers, making it easier to process and less likely to pill. Pilling of a fabric occurs when groups of short or broken fibers on the surface of the fabric become tangled together in a tiny ball.

Alpaca is stronger, warmer and yet lighter than wool. This is because alpaca fiber has a hollow core that provides it great thermal properties within extremely lightweight garments. This characteristic also allows alpaca clothing to breathe and wear more comfortably during any season. It comes in 22 natural colors, yet can be dyed any desired shade.

This fiber is organic and naturally flame retardant. Containing no lanolin, it is also naturally hypoallergenic. Most people who are sensitive to wool find that they can wear alpaca without the itching or irritation they feel from wool because alpaca fiber is smooth.

Additional performance characteristics include: stretch, water repellency, and odor reduction. For travelers, clothing made from alpaca is desirable because it is wrinkle-resistant.

Alpacas were first imported into the United States in 1984. Since then, the alpaca industry has grown steadily, on average 22 percent a year, according to the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA), the backbone of the alpaca industry. Current estimates total over 65,000 registered alpacas with the Alpaca Registry, Inc. (ARI) in the United States and more than 4,000 AOBA members in North America.

To find out more about Suri alpacas, or to visit a farm near you, visit www.alpacainfo.com.

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Photos:
Suri Head:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JerrMill/surihead.jpg

Suris:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JerrMill/SuriAlpacas.jpg

Suri Body Shot:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JerrMill/Suri.jpg

Baby Suri:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JerrMill/babysuri.jpg