Spring is coming. The proof of it was in my laundry room Saturday morning trying to get warm.
I had just logged on to Facebook to find out what I had missed in the night when Husband came in the back door with a small white limp bundle in his hands. He hollered for me to change into old clothes, grab some towels, and come to the laundry room. When I got there I could see the poor lamb he was holding was half frozen and still covered with after birth. I wrapped the lamb in one towel and tossed the rest in the dryer to warm up.
When Husband went out to do chores he found the ewe and her twin lambs in the woods. It had snowed the night before and the lamb he brought me was laying with his legs splayed out behind him in the snow. He wasn't getting up and obviously hadn't been able to nurse.
Bitsy and I spent the morning rubbing him with warm towels, rocking him, talking to him, and praying he'd stand up. She named him 'Woody.' After about 30 minutes I got out a book we have about sheep and found out giving him some milk (from his mother) could help him gain enough strength to stand. Husband milked the ewe and we offered the little guy his bottle. He guzzled it down and started baaa-ing for more.
Husband held him up so he could try standing. Once Woody was steady, Husband let him put some weight on his feet. That's when Woody tried to make a mad dash for my lap. Well, as mad a dash as a noodle legged new born lamb can make. He flopped into my lap & head butted my stomach and chest looking for more to eat.
After more than an hour of worry and work, Woody got to go back out to live with his mom & twin brother. It broke my heart a bit when he left me for his real mom, but it would have broken it much more if he'd have given up in my laundry room. I'm sure it would have crushed Bitsy to pieces as one look at his fuzzy little face and she was a goner.
We now have twin girl lambs born last Monday named Jessie and Bo Peep and twin boy lambs named Buzz and Woody. Thus far we haven't had a lamb live through the summer, but I'm still holding out hope that the cast of Toy Story will make it.
It may still be a few weeks away, but Spring is definitely on it's way.
2 comments:
how cute! I'm glad Woody made and hopefully will grow up to be a good lamb..When I was married to my first husband, who is a farmer, I wanted some sheep..so we got a couple and put them in a pin close to the house..after a couple weeks they both got sick and died..so we tried again..with just one, and the same thing happened..so the guy we got them from came over and one look at my pin and he knew the answer..there was some kind of weed in there that they were eating and it was killing them..needless to say, we changed pins and I got one more lamb...he was so much fun and got to raise him till I moved...fun memories
I'd love to see some pictures of the little ones, is the camera still not working?
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