THE moment an American father has an emotional “meltdown” about an alpaca he met on holiday has gone viral.
Alexandria Neonakis from Santa Monica, California, shared hilarious screenshots of messages from her father, Dimitris, while visiting South America.
Dimitris sent his daughter the messages from Peru to tell her that it was the “most huggable animal ever” and that he couldn’t stop kissing it and putting his face on its “thick soft wool”.
He even sent her a selfie of himself with his face pressed into the cud-chewing animal with a grin from ear-to-ear.
Alexandria posted the screenshots of her besotted father on Twitter last night with the caption: “My dad is in Peru having a melt down over alpacas.”
Her tweet has gone viral, picking up over 23,000 likes and retweets as well as hundreds of comments.
Her first picture shows an image of the alpaca that’s stolen her dad’s heart along with his messages, which read: “This was the absolute softest and most huggable animal ever.
“It is an alpaca. I just couldn’t stop hugging it and kissing it and putting my face on its thick soft wool.
“Its wool was so soft on my face, it kept me laughing. That was the softest ever.”
The final image shows Alexandria’s father with a beaming smile as he stands alongside the alpaca whilst cuddling into it.
In later tweets, Alexandria revealed the extent of her dad’s affection for the animal, as she wrote: “He’s at the ‘i’m bringing some home’ stage of it right now. My Facebook messenger is 100% dad losing it over alpacas.
“I keep telling him to open a farm. I’d run it. He saw that it’s a delicacy and he’s having a bit of a struggle with that but he grew up a goat farmer in Greece.”
Twitter users were quick to respond to the unusual relationship.
Vanessa Franko wrote: “I feel like your dad and my dad would be besties.”
Josh Scherr commented: “That’s the best thing I’ve seen.”
One user added: “His face in that last photo is pure, unsullied joy. Fantastic.”
Whilst Helio Carrasco joked: “You’re leaving me for her? Ok, don’t worry, alpaca your bags for you.”
Alpacas are native to South America and resemble a small llama in appearance.
They are kept in herds and graze in the Andes mountain range of southern Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Chile at an altitude of 3,500 m (11,500 ft) to 5,000 m (16,000 ft)above sea level.
