Animal-loving Hillary McGregor has a bucket list. Actually, she says, it’s more of an animal wish list – certain creatures she’d love to own, and a camel has always been high on that list.

Now, that’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Her aunt, Michele Knapp-Stehly, married into a family that raises exotic animals, and they use camels – working them about 25 days a year – as key components of live nativity scenes.

“Camels are handy like a horse, but like a cow, they don’t panic, they don’t spook,” Michele says. “Camels were a perfect fit for me.”

Though camels are normally good mothers, there is, of course, always an exception to the rule. Michele found that this spring, when a newborn camel just wasn’t able to latch onto its mother.

She says she sent out the “bat signal,” asking for help from her close-knit family of ranchers.

Michele’s mother is Sherry Knapp, and her brother is Larry Knapp, who is Hillary’s dad. The Knapp family owns Lazy K Ranch, an AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder in Chowchilla, California. Knowledge of horses and cattle runs deep there.

When the bat signal got to Hillary, she assumed that the new camel momma would eventually accept her baby, and all would be well. But as a joke, she says, she told her aunt, “I’ll take it, I’ll take it!”

As the situation developed, Hillary was driving from her home in Kentwood, Louisiana, where she and her husband, Ryan McGregor, run On Target Livestock. Hillary spends about half her time in California, helping with the family ranch, and at this point, she was heading west to help prepare for the ranch’s annual Pick A Colt Day Production Sale, held on the first Saturday in May.

On this particular trip, she had a trailer behind her, as she was planning to bring home a super-special palomino colt by Lotta Stuff To Shine (by Shining Spark), out of a Peppy San Bar mare. This weanling, whom she had to do some “sweet talking” to get, was to become a show horse and stallion prospect for operations in both states.

Hillary was soon to learn that on the way home, this little colt would have some company.

When she got to California, “my curiosity got the best of me,” she says. “I drove over to my aunt’s house to see the baby. Camel babies are probably the cutest animals there are, besides horses. Long legs, awkward movements and lots of noise.

“To my surprise, the first thing my aunt asked was, ‘What are you going to name him?’”

One item was about to be checked off her bucket list, but it wouldn’t be an easy check.

Hillary, who has raised orphan foals and calves, had to do some quick research. She talked to other people who raised camels and learned about a milk replacer that was made for llamas and alpacas but would work for camels.

The baby would need two to three pints every three to four hours.

One of the camel breeders she reached out to told her, “They’re very, very adaptable. Just feed him.”

Sure enough, the baby took to a bottle quickly, and Hillary decided to name him “Ripp,” after a character on “Yellowstone.”

Meanwhile, the yet-to-be-registered colt was nicknamed “Yeti,” a special name that Hillary had been saving for a special light-colored horse.

“I decided to bring Yeti over and set up a pen right next to Ripp so they could keep each other company,” Hillary says. “I figured they would enjoy having someone to be around.”

What happened next was amazing to watch.

“It was an instant connection,” Hillary says. “They actually called to each other through the pen.”

Before long, she decided it was OK to let them out into a larger pen together to play. When she went to check on them later, the two were cuddled up for a nap, with Ripp’s head resting on Yeti’s body for a pillow.

“It is so special,” Michele says. “They were just in the right place at the right time in the right circumstances.”

The bond between the two animals worked to their benefit. When Hillary embarked on the journey back to Louisiana, Yeti and Ripp hopped in the trailer together and seemed to give each other comfort.

“I’ve had yearlings and older horses not handle the trip that well,” Hillary says. “Not a worry in the world for either of them.” They ate, drank and even laid down to sleep.

However, preparing an enormous baby bottle at rest stops didn’t exactly make Hillary inconspicuous. The fact that a camel nose was often peeking through the bars on the trailer windows didn’t help, either.

Although her dad had warned her to keep trailer doors shut so as not to attract unwanted attention, she still had plenty of curious onlookers.

“The look on kids’ faces when they actually got to pet a camel melted my heart,” Hillary says.

Now, settled at home in Louisiana, the two friends are strengthening their bond.

Hillary puts both of them on the hot walker, and when she turns them out, they run and play together.

“The colt’s so much faster,” she says. “Ripp, he’s not very coordinated or fast, so he’s at a huge disadvantage. … But that’s what they do all morning long. They run around, and then they crash out.”

Michele says that’s just what kids should do: play, sleep and eat.

The two buddies holler for each other if they’re separated, leading Hillary and her husband to wonder what it’ll be like when it’s time for Yeti to go to a show.

“Ryan said, ‘You do know Ripp can’t go, right?’” Hillary says.

Hillary is mulling over ideas for Ripp – star of a holiday parade? Barrel-racing camel? Sorting camel?

“Eventually, we’re going to start him,” she says. “We’ll start them both. We’re going to have a matching team. I have started a lot of horses in my day, but I have never started a camel.”

Indeed, the two pale palominos do make a matched set – in color, at least.

Hillary’s family members – and many others – are interested to see what she does with the two of them.

Yeti and Ripp have already found some social-media fame. You can follow them on Instagram at @ripp_the_camel.

Hillary handles social media for Lazy K Ranch, and it has been fun for her to spotlight these youngsters.

“I’ve been excited about Yeti since he was born, but the camel just makes it even better,” she says. “Those two are something else.”

Sherry Knapp, matriarch of AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder Lazy K Ranch in Chowchilla, California, says it’s no accident that Yeti accepted his camel companion so easily.

“We’re so proud of our Quarter Horses,” Sherry says. “They just have that kind of mind. If it had been a flighty colt, it just wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”

The Knapps have been raising horses for more than 45 years, and one of their best was the 1985 stallion Cat O Lena 380, a son of Doc O’Lena out of a great Sugar Bars mare. His blood still runs on the ranch today.

Larry says the ranch raises about a hundred quality foals a year – quite an accomplishment for an operation that his parents built from the ground up from very humble beginnings.

“Mom would never say this about herself,” Larry says, “it’s about being blessed, but also having the insight to find and associate with really good people. Mom rode with Ray Hunt long before anybody heard of Ray Hunt. He lived about 10 minutes away. My mom was at the epicenter of the renaissance before anybody realized it was happening.”

Tom Dorrance also played an integral role in the training methods that are used on the Lazy K today.

“Those two guys just got us on the road,” Sherry says. “It was exciting for me to realize that there was a better way. This has trickled down to (the next generations), all this knowledge. It has been fantastic.”

And, yes, those same training philosophies work on camels, too.

Visit www.lazykranch.com to learn more, or access the digital edition of America’s Horse at www.aqha.com/americashorse to watch a video about the Lazy K, narrated by Larry.