Meet Hephner, the alpaca that sneezed on the King

An alpaca from Goulburn, clad in a waistcoat with a gold bow tie and a gold crown on his head, made news around the world after unloading his nostrils onto the King’s jacket during the royal visit to Canberra last week.

After laying a wreath at the Australian War Memorial around noon, King Charles was shaking hands and greeting members of the public along the barricade when he came up to ‘Hephner’ the alpaca.

Owner Robert Fletcher says His Majesty enquired after its name and its story as a “support alpaca we take around to nursing homes and other events” when the King reached out to pat him on the nose.

“And that was it, Hephner sneezed on him,” Robert says.

“Charles was a bit taken aback and checked his suit with a bit of a chuckle.”

But it’s clear it left an impression on more than the suit. In a subsequent interview, the King mentioned Hephner and joked about how he’d once been sneezed on by an elephant as well.

It’s hardly the first celebrity meeting for Hephner.

Robert and his wife Jayne from ‘Fletcher’s Ark Farmyard’ bought him eight years ago with hopes he’d get all lovey-dovey with their female alpacas. But the Fletcher children had other ideas.

“Our kids started using him for the parade and stocking classes they have at the Sydney Royal Easter Show,” Robert says.

“Then they started an Instagram page, and we started visiting nursing homes and getting messages, inviting him to weddings and different functions, and it all went from there.”

They’ve since hosted weddings and photo shoots at the farm, the latest over Christmas when Hephner donned a Santa costume and posed alongside more than 400 families over 10 days.

“We even get messages from people prior to the shows, asking what days we’ll be there so they can come see him and get a selfie.”

Every Thursday, when Robert works a half-day in Canberra, Hephner accompanies him, and every Friday, Robert takes him to visit a local nursing home or, if he’s in Canberra, Clare Holland House.

“It’s just his temperament,” Robert says.

“For instance, we had a job at the girl’s school in Randwick not long ago, and the library was upstairs, and there was quite a small elevator to get there, but he happily walked in … He just does things others would be quite hesitant to.”

It’s put Hephner in shows and events all over Australia, in front of celebrities like Guy Sebastian and Jimmy Barnes, and even on an episode of the TV show Bondi Rescue when Robert happened to take him swimming at Bondi Beach while they were filming.

“We often take him to the beach because he likes the water,” Robert says.

Normally there’ll be some sort of costume for the occasion too, like on Bastille Day when he wore a beret and blue and white striped ‘shirt’.

“My wife just randomly buys stuff that she thinks might suit him and then we modify it to fit an alpaca.”

However, it was touch and go for a while on whether Hephner would get to meet the King.

“Initially, security wasn’t going to let me in,” Robert says.

But regaled with stories of how he was very quiet and had even once toured the ACT Supreme Court, the guards eventually waved the odd couple through.

“I could hear people saying, ‘Follow the alpaca because he’ll definitely get a photo with the King’.”

And he sure did. But the King also received a much nicer gift from Robert.

He and his daughter had visited a nursing home in Crookwell the week prior, where one of the residents had knitted pairs of merino wool socks for the King and Queen.

“They had Googled his and Camilla’s foot sizes, and so we were able to hand those to him too, and he looked in the bag and then took a second, longer look, which I thought was really nice that he took the time to really see what was in there.”

Original Article published by James Coleman on Riotact.