Ye Olde Batt: Relatively Normal Bahaviour

I have discovered that it is without a doubt that sheep are dumb. The day that Ukelele and Umeko were born we had a ewe who was feeling that her natural instinct was to freak out about impending lamb birth and in an effort to avoid passing a bony bag of slime through her birthing canal she would like to steal a lamb from some other momma and take it as her own. Aha! Fanny was having twins she would miss one of hers.

This caused great anxiety in Hubby as he knew that when the inevitable happened and she bore her own, the one that she adopted/stolen would be denied and the real mother would realize the pleasures of only feeding one and said adopted/stolen lamb would have to be bottle fed by moi and Hubby which means late night feeds.... ouch! Hubby insists that this does not happen as he does not like his sleep being disturbed.... (neither do I come to think of it)! The antics were on to interfere with nature and have the lambs feed from the natural mother. For a while there it was like some kind of comedy show. Here's how it went......

Hubby jumped the fence when he discovered Queen licking the new born lamb. I'm quickly trying to enter via the normal way... by the gate.... Hubby picks up a stick and bats Queen away from the lamb so that Fanny (who is the real mom) can lick her baby and not be stressed about some fat old bag trying to steal her baby. Queen is now running around and around the pen trying to get back to the lamb she was trying to steal with Hubby chasing her and wacking her on the bum with a stick. I come along and he gives me the stick and insists that I should do this job while he goes and sets up a heat lamp for the new lambs. (New lambs born in the evening when it is cool (near 0 degrees) get a heat lamp in the barn). While he was doing this, and let me tell you it took a whole lot longer than it should have, I was having a face off with Queen who had now stopped running but was staring intently at the place where Fanny was now giving birth to lamb #2. Queen would take a step to the left and I'd move that way too. Queen would try a faint to the right and I'd head her off. If I turned my back for a second she'd run past me and I'd have to start wacking her again. Meanwhile all of the other sheep were baa-ing and making a general racket since Hubby was carrying something (a heat lamp) which must mean it was feeding time for oats and minerals. What a racket! I was roaring at Queen and generally trying to scare her off from Fanny who was trying hard to assert ownership over the lambs. The ram and withers were in an uproar and the alpacas decided they should fight over who got the best view of the general chaos in the far paddock. Once we got Fanny and her lambs in the barn which was the easiest part of all (just pick up the lambs, and it must be both of them at the same time, Momma will follow you anywhere. We settled her in the barn with the lamp and a gate across so she'd have peace and privacy and Hubby felt he should give her a bucket of water and sweet feed. Water of course because all nursing mom's need access to water and sweet feed because it will enrich her milk. Well that was when all hell broke loose. Sal who is half cow I think decided that no bucket would make it to the barn without her getting her head in it and so every time Hubby got in the paddock and headed for the barn Sal would thump the bucket right out of his hand. The air was turning blue and my job was to keep Sal from toppling Hubby and the buckets. I'm telling you Hubby must have felt like the mulberry bush because I was going around and around and around and around..... I almost fell down because I was getting so dizzy. I even tried going the other way but Sal wasn't having any of that. She just wanted the bucket of sweet feed.... I tell you those sheep are like the worst kind of druggy with a serious case of d.t.s going on. The whole gong show lasted a good 45 minutes and I'm sure the neighbours thought we were butchering them all in one go.

Vango (named for Vincent Van Gogh) was born a black boy (meat) on Saturday sometime during the day when no one was looking. He slipped out of his momma's butt with neary a to do and that was that. Queen is still waiting but learned that perhaps stealing a lamb was not going to get her out of the inevitable..... she didn't try to steal that one. She is the last ewe that we are waiting on. So far we have five lambs, 2 white girls and 3 black boys.

Saturday was spent doing chores in FSJ, as we prepare for shearing season. I picked up the blades for my electric shears which were being sharpened for another season of cutting. One set of blades for all the sheep and a set of blades each for the alpacas. Sheep have grease and so keep out all the dirt. Alpacas roll in the dirt and when the blades hit the dirt they go dull in two seconds flat. I wish I had an alpaca shower where I could wash them and then shear them clean.

Meanwhile we have found ourselves a dog. Her name is Jiggs. She is a Siberian Husky cross. She is much smaller than Duff but has similar colouring. She has a pointy nose like a coyote and is about the same size as one. She has a very quiet nature about her and she is a little aloof until you pick up a squeaky toy and throw it for her.... then she loves you. We spent an hour with her on Saturday afternoon and felt really lousy when we had to leave her at the SPCA. She will be released to us on Thursday after she has been spayed. She is 11 months old. I am looking forward to bringing her home.

I still miss Duff terribly and can't talk about her without crying. Hubby and I discussed bringing a new dog home and feeling slightly guilty about Duff. But I said that just because you bring home a new dog doesn't mean that you love the old one any less. I don't think Duff would want us to be lonely for her. We are an animal family and our family feels incomplete without them. Cats, dogs, alpacas, sheep, I even miss the chickens and wouldn't mind having my ducks again. So here comes Jiggs.... real soon.... this should be interesting. I wonder if she will like us.

I don't have pics of her yet but I do have pics of Ukelele, Umeko, Vango and me at the historical fair last Thursday.... so here you go... I'll try for better pics tomorrow......

Vango and his momma.....