Kiwi real estate agent's pet alpaca is a hit at open-homes

A Rotorua real estate agent is turning heads with his cute, friendly sidekick who accompanies him to open homes, charming both buyers and sellers.

Boris the Alpaca is becoming a celebrity in Rotorua as he's often spotted driving around town on the back of his owner Ray White agent Tim O’Sullivan’s Ram ute.

And unlike most farm animals, Boris does get around – often going into Ray White Rotorua’s pet-friendly office, client meetings and even open homes.

O’Sullivan, who co-owns Ray White Rotorua, says he can’t resist the sad eyes Boris makes at him when he goes to leave after bottle-feeding him in his paddock so if the occasion allows he will let the five-month-old alpaca hop on the back of his ute.

It’s also more convenient for O’Sullivan who still bottle-feeds Boris twice a day since discovering the wet bundle of fluff lying in a paddock in his lifestyle block in Hamurana in early December.

His arrival was even more of a surprise as they hadn’t even realised the alpaca was pregnant because their male alpaca had died seven months earlier. “We couldn’t tell that she was pregnant and secondly it didn’t even cross our mind that she was pregnant,” O’Sullivan said.

The baby alpaca, known as a cria, was only a few hours old and had been disowned by its mother.

Boris’ mother rejected any attempt to be reunited with its baby so O’Sullivan turned to Google to learn everything about rearing the cria.

Boris – named after former UK prime minister Boris Johnson because of the pink near his eyes and funny looking hair-do – can sometimes be found at O’Sullivan’s open homes tied to the back of the ute on a long leash just nibbling on grass.

Open-home visitors also can’t resist getting a snap or two with Boris who is quite photogenic.

He’s already appeared in a listing photo and O’Sullivan says it might not be his last cameo given how popular he is.

“I think I will start doing it because people just like it so much. It’s something different and he certainly breaks the ice when he comes to open homes.

“If I go to a house that I’ve got listed and Boris isn’t with me they are most disappointed.”

“Just driving down the road with him on the back of my ute – he creates a lot of interest. People have got their cameras videoing him, taking pictures. Even driving down the road you can hear people go, 'Oh look at that’.”

While O’Sullivan admits Boris is becoming a bit of a point of difference for him, he is also wary about exploiting him.

“The other thing I’m worried about is that if he gets too well-known that somebody might pinch him and that would be heart-breaking.

This article was first published by One Roof and is republished here with permission.