We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Loretta Hajovsky. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Loretta below.
Loretta, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
My entire life I have always had a love for animals. Living on a big farm I had plenty of space to add large animals to my pet family. For my 50th Birthday my husband Gérard Hajovsky drove me for a day trip to Tierra Prometida Alpaca breeding farm. I fell in love with the alpacas and wanted several of them one day. Gerard bought three of them for my birthday. Several weeks later they were delivered to our farm in La Grange. Every day I would spend my day walking, talking, grooming and training my three alpaca boys; Willie Waylon, and Tex. While browsing through Hobby Lobby I was noticing all of the cute accessories throughout the store with alpacas and llamas on pillows, framed wall art, note pads, calendars, and more. All of them were decorated with cute hats or beautiful flowers. It was like a lightbulb went off
And I thought to myself why don’t I make a few costumes for my alpacas?
I constructed a rainbow unicorn costume for one of my alpacas. I took one of the alpacas dressed in the rainbow unicorn costume to movie night on the Square downtown La Grange. I wanted to see how people reacted to the Alpaca and how the Alpaca reacted to other people. A line formed of people to take pictures with the cute rainbow unicorn Alpaca. I stood there in amazement, watching people wait for over an hour to take pictures with the Alpaca. It was that very day on the way home to our farm that Gerard said to me, Loretta you should start a petting zoo business featuring alpacas in costumes. Did you see that line and how people stood in that line waiting for over an hour. That is how Texas Party Animals started. Here I am 6 1/2 years later with over 150 handmade alpaca costumes and accessories. An entire alpacas’ costume closet.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My educational and prior work background has been in business and accounting so opening a small woman owned business was the next step. It was a huge benefit to me spending a lot of time with my three pack of alpacas every day. I noticed that the anxiety and panic attacks that I have been plugged with by over 30 years, had stopped or at least not bothered me in several months. so not only are the alpacas fun and cute to be around, but they had a calming effect on me directly. A friend asked me to bring the boys to a MHMR charity nonprofit In LaGrange , Texas Real Health Services, and ask if I would bring the Alpaca Trio to do a short meet and greet presentation to the clients. With assistance, I spent the morning spreading a little happiness among some very special people. It was so much fun and these challenged adults fell in love with Willie Waylon and Tex the alpacas. Shortly after this time, the Austin Statesman followed by Texas Monthly Published a short story about the days meet and greet event.
* Read story here:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-best-thing-in-texas-meet-emotional-support-alpacas-willie-waylon-and-tex/?utm_source=texasmonthly.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=sharebutton
I volunteer locally as often as my schedule allows. Including an annual La Grange elementary school suicide awareness month to meet and greet the entire student body with alpaca hugs and photos. Monday, September 23 is my next appearance In La Grange Elementary School.
Some of the challenges and lessons that I have learned along the way, looking back was learning the ins and outs of a new to me industry. Live Animals Entertainment Industry is unlike any other type of business that I have been involved.
A huge challenge that I faced was informing the public of my new, fresh and exciting new business. So self teaching myself each social media platform to reach my customers on any level through these amazing opportunities. Soon after, wedding job started to happen. So the first year of my business I spent every single Sunday at a wedding vendor open house and wedding shows. This was very successful and being able to meet potential customers one-to-one. Another obstacle that I had to hurdle was the safety and comfortably transporting my alpacas from our farm to and from the city. I purchased the first Alpacamobile. A 15 passenger transit van. With 13 of the passenger seats removed, the alpacas walk up a red carpeted ramp to the interior greeted by a comfrey memory foam mattress with eight air conditioning vents, extra blower fans and an entire cab of safety airbags. After the first year of business, we purchased a second Alpacamobile. At that time we were doing two and three events per day every weekend. Caring for my alpacas is seven days a week 365 days a year 24 hours a day. It is by far the hardest job that I have ever worked but I’m working for myself, and enjoying every moment. To date, my alpacas have been featured on numerous news programs in Austin and San Antonio, featured twice in Womens World Magazine, Brides Magazine, Southern Living Magazine, Black Bride Magazine, Pin Up And Pets Magazine, and Brides of Houston Magazine.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Two years after I started my fun and exciting new business Texas Party Animals, the shutdowns with Covid began. After spending the last year booking, so many events, including large, corporate events and festivals, I had over 20 events cancellations within a two week period. Heartbroken and devastated. I had to come up with another source of income to cover my monthly expenses. So started providing Virtual Alpaca Zoom Bombs. At this time, everyone was working from home, and these large corporations were looking for a little fun for their employees for their daily zoom meetings. The alpacas would be face-to-face with hundreds of people all over the world, laughing for just a few short moments of happiness. I had booked a lot of Alpaca Zoom Bombs during the Covid shut down. Several each week which brought in additional income for the feed and health care of my alpacas. After a couple of months of the shut down, I was asked to provide Virtual Alpacas Farm Classroom Educational Programs and Demonstrations. I provided virtually 30 minutes with school classrooms across the world that hired me to educate about alpacas for the virtual classrooms. The last 10 minutes of the program was a question and answer session from the students. These events were very rewarding. Once the Covid lockdown was over and live events were being booked I was thrilled to get back to my regular jobs. But the educational programs I will hold near and dear to my heart. For just a short time being able to educate children from around the world and 30 minute increments gave me a future goal of building an educational barn and classroom here on my farm. If I build it, they will come and see my alpacas without always having to travel to events. Agriculture Tourism is a huge and growing market that I plan to be part of one day.
Now, several years later and back doing lots of weddings and corporate events, I would like my trained alpacas to pursue roles in upcoming projects in the film and movie industry which has doubled in size over the last several years in the Austin Texas area.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Having the time to volunteer with our local assisted-living and nursing homes. So many of these people have never been around any other animals besides dogs and cats. So hugging and loving on a trained beautiful alpaca is a super special treat for the clients. I have the power to bring a little happiness and sunshine bringing the alpacas for a visit and it fills my heart with love. Happiness is like glitter, and I try to spread that stuff everywhere.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TwPxkcNLYBx3Dm6j7?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?igsh=f5an7b4p0xai&utm_content=3m6ueqr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TexasPartyAnimals?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loretta-s-hajovsky-9bab9a103?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: https://x.com/texpartyanimals?s=21&t=rfUIqQQLQSktiFQXLpDd5w
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@texaspartyanimals?si=tqqYL-blXKhCWyxe
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/texas-party-animals-la-grange?cid=58ad185c85dba6c6
- Other: Tiktok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@texaspartyanimals?_t=8pmHDaa4F26&_r=1
Image Credits
All photos property of Loretta Hajovsky and can be used for your publication.