Residents of West Lothian care home were in for a surprise when they peered out their windows last week – for staring back them was a pack of friendly alpacas.
The animals were brought to Heatherfield Nursing Home and Crusader Court in Armadale by local animal therapy charity Urban Nature Retreat.
Sean Carr, who runs the charity, said they wanted to do something to cheer up the residents who have had no visits from family or entertainers for three weeks in a bid to stop the virus being brought into the home.
He explained: “We wanted to bring a little joy to the residents before we closed up our centre for lockdown.
“The residents in the care homes have been isolated for the past three weeks and they have had to cancel all entertainment.
“The residents and staff loved meeting our beautiful alpacas.
“A lot of the residents didn’t even know we where coming until we were standing outside their windows.
“It was so nice to see so many smiling faces during such a horrible time.
“We created a video of our visit and posted it on our social media platforms which allowed family members to see their reactions.”
A relative of one of the residents at Heatherfield said they were delighted the charity had chosen to visit the home.
They said: “It was so nice of them to do that and then post a video so we could see.
“It’s been so hard not being able to go to the home to visit.
“The residents all looked so happy to see the alpacas, it was really touching.”
Urban Nature is an animal and nature therapy centre for the most vulnerable children and families in Central Scotland.
It supports over 300 children per week and have 119 rescued animals from alpacas to raccoons.
For more information visit www.urbannatureuk.com.
