It\u2019s the winter of 2015. It is so cold at the stables where I keep my horses, the water in the pipes are freezing. Briony is at the stables and I load the dogs in the Goanywherevehicle to go and join her. It is late afternoon and as per usual I take the dogs for a walk along the river before heading back to the car and home.\u00a0\u00a0The dogs are all excited, barking and playing around my feet. The chill in the evening air is very evident and it is dropping quickly with the result that\u00a0\u00a0I am looking forward to heading home. As I approach my car I hear Briony calling my name: \u201dMom! Mom! Maaaa!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I make my way to her I see our landlady, Elaine, with her and in her arms\u00a0she is cuddling something in a baby blanket. Before I could even reach them, Briony is already dancing from foot to foot in excitement. \u201cMommy, Mommy,Maaaaa do you want a lamb?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first thought is an excited yes and my second thought is no. Then the blanket is unceremoniously dumped in my arms and I have the first glimpse of Mowgli.\u00a0\u00a0Love at first sight. Not really knowing much about lamb raising I find myself making my way to the car, lamb baby in arms.\u00a0\u00a0The dogs are beside themselves. They just want to see what I have in my blanket so without a thought I dump the lamb in the back of the Goanywherevehicle. The 7 dogs ranging from super large to super small all suddenly become responsible lamb parents, vying with each other for the opportunity to sniff and smell the newcomer. My drive home is with one eye on the road and one eye on the precious bundle in the back. Once I got home and everybody settled the next problem presented itself. The lamb was about 4 hours old. The mom had died giving birth to him so he really was left stranded. How was I going to break this news to Bank of Dad and where was the little guy going to sleep?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lucky for me, I had raised one of my dogs under much the same circumstances many years ago. Hazel was mother to all that I brought home. An adult dog, she had been spayed at a very young age and had never had any babies of her own to mother. She had a box full of soft toys that she would baby as the urge came upon her. My dogs sleep in our room but they have day beds in the kitchen and when I placed the lamb in the day bed, Hazel made herself at home and between us we had the task of being mommy sorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dad came home from work, took one look at the new arrival and said: \u201cReaching for new heights, Yvette?\u201d\u00a0\u00a024 hours later, that same lamb was sleeping in our bed, tucked in between us and there he stayed until he was 6 months old. Mowgli wore disposable baby nappies to prevent oopsies in the house, rode in the car with the dogs, went for walks with the dogs, went to the dog parlour to be bathed and groomed. He pretty much ruled the roost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His favorite place in the car was standing with his front feet on the center console of the Goanywherevehicle. He had his canine brothers and sisters in the car with him and that\u2019s how we would travel to the stables and back every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my favorite stories to tell was the day that we were stopped by the local police at a roadblock. The points man disinterestedly waved me to the side of the road and his colleague came walking over. Without making eye contact she said: \u201dLicense, please.\u201d As I reached for my handbag Mowgli (who was standing in his usual spot), peered at her and let out a long:\u201d Baaaaa\u201d in greeting. This set all 7 dogs off at once and in the ensuing cacophony I heard her say: \u201dHaaaaibo! Voertsek!\u201d She turned around and walked away leaving me there. I laughed until I cried and wondered what the conversation in her home would be like that night\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Mowgli got older and stronger it became apparent that he was suffering from an identity crisis. He had no idea that his roots were firmly grounded in the sheep family tree but rather thought he was a dog. Couldn\u2019t blame him. He spent all his days in the company of dogs, sleeping, eating a playing with them. He was so cute when he felt it was time for his bottle. He would trot to the kitchen with me, his high heels making little clickety clack noises as he followed me from the fridge to the microwave. His impatience reached an all-time high as soon as the microwave pinged and stood on his hind legs trying to reach the bottle. He became my shadow. He followed in my footsteps and became right upset when I had to go to town and he couldn\u2019t come with me. That\u2019s when Mother Hazel stepped in and took over. She looked after him like he was her own. The babysitter was in attendance and she made sure he was well cared for, cuddling him in his moments of need. At times I would look at him and feel very sad for this little guy, lost in the identity of dogs with no sheep comrades in arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we need is another lamb,\u201d I said. Dad did his usual: \u201cWTF!\u201d Incredulous look accompanied with a face turning purple then red. \u201cThat will NOT happen.\u201d Hmmm. When you put things out in the universe it is as if there is a little elf that sits there and decides: \u201cGood idea!\u201d My wish came true shortly after this as I went for a little outride on my horse one afternoon. My trusty steed was a no-nonsense man. Abhorred any kisses and cuddles, all business when under saddle. Until I inherited him. Ari just had to cave after he had been subjected to the Wilde love. So, one afternoon I decided to take him for a walk on the farm. Behind me followed and array of dogs, all different sizes and one lamb. Everybody played and cavorted as we walked through the woods and it was just a beautiful time of the afternoon. The sun was dipping on the horizon, and the last rays were touching the leaves of the trees making them glitter in old gold. Suddenly I spotted a white bundle in the midst of the trees. The white stood out and made me look twice. My failing eyesight (one of the pleasures of getting older) made me look twice but when I saw the bundle move I knew it was alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little lamb was lying down, too weak to even move with all the commotion. \u201cRight, prepare yourself Yvette, it is near death.\u201d I jump of my horse and go nearer. To my overwhelming relief I saw movement and a little mouth that was trying to make a sound with nothing coming out. The little bundle didn\u2019t even object to all the interest shown by all the onlookers, just accepted its fate. Once I had established that the lamb did not belong to anybody on the property I could spring into action. It became apparent that there was an injury to the right hind leg. It was dangling and though the poor little mite was dehydrated and very emaciated I had a good feeling about her. It was like she was an answer to my prayers. Mowgli had been showing signs of non-sheep like behavior and though it was very cute it was also a tad disturbing. I am a firm believer in the fact that every species has a right to being proud of their heritage but to date Mowgli only had dog heritage. He was not interested in mingling with any of his kin and it became alarmingly clear that we needed an intervention. The intervention came in the form of a very weak Mulan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulan (in keeping with being a true Disney fan the name had to match) had been abandoned in the area that I had found her as she had broken her leg.\u00a0\u00a0The farmer had no use for a lamb with problems so he left her behind when the herd had moved on.\u00a0\u00a0How long she lay there I had no idea but it must have been a few days.\u00a0\u00a0I immediately took her to the vet and he put her on a drip to give her some fluids and after looking at her leg his advice was that it was too late to do anything about it.\u00a0\u00a0His feeling was that she would do ok on three legs if she made it through this ordeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mulan spent her first few days of her new life at the vet and in this time I tried to get Mowgli more ‘sheepish’\u2026 What a bloody job?! Dear God.\u00a0\u00a0I started with the Mowgli School Plan.\u00a0\u00a0Every day I took him from home to the stables to spend time in the lamb creche with the other lambs there.\u00a0\u00a0The first day was just 20 minutes and then I caved.\u00a0\u00a0I actually sat in my car watching the little lone figure running up and down the fence screaming his head off for his human mom whilst the other ‘normal’ lambs stood in a bewildered group watching his antics. I couldn\u2019t take it and got out of my car, stumbling and crying as I made my way towards him.\u00a0\u00a0My groom saw my distress and let him out, the last few meters we resembled two lovers separated by war and reunited at last, running towards each other, crying and finally the great joyous reunion!\u00a0\u00a0This set the trend for everyday that I fetched him from creche, same story. Each day was a trial of endurance but I managed to add valuable minutes to his schooling and our separation. Ten days later we had made it to our first full day and we were even throwing in and early evening collection. Each reunion was a tumultuous affair of tears and crying with Mowgli scrambling to climb in the Goanywherevehicle as this was the sign that he was indeed going home. Driving home, I had a little lamb with pink lips and a spot on his lip nuzzle my neck, standing between the two front seats with his front feet on the center console. I didn\u2019t know how I was going to make the first night away from home but Mulan was coming home from the vet soon and I couldn\u2019t keep two sheep at home. She didn\u2019t like or trust people like Mowgli did and the dogs would add to her distress so moving her home was out. I wanted to time it that her first night at her new sheep home would be in a stable with Mowgli by her side so in effect it would be his first night without his Momma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As luck would have it, I had a function I had to attend on the first night that Mulan would be coming home so the date was set. That day I fetched Mulan from the vet and took her to the stables. As she was still very weak and her leg was still buggered I immediately put her in the stable that I had prepared for them. Mulan installed now it was time to fetch Mowgli. I called him and he came trotting over, following me like he was an undercover dog to the stables. I don\u2019t know what I thought but I had it all wrong. You cannot just put two sheep in a room and expect them to be best friends. No. Just No. They taught me that. Mulan took one look at Mowgli and immediately retreated to the back of the stable. Mowgli took one look and Mulan and immediately head butted her. WTF! Why?! Another intervention was called for and I sat there for about an hour trying to coax the two to play nice. I could see my evening out waving me goodbye as I tried my best to cajole the two into a better frame of mind if it didn\u2019t succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dinner came and it melted most of the resentment away. Food does that, it is the basis for love thy neighbour, world peace and all that good stuff. I started believing I had won and quietly slipped away to quickly go and salvage my persona and then hopefully make it in time for the function. Throughout the evening I kept sending messages to my groom asking how they were doing. Finally, my groom just got tired of me and switched his phone off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First night done and dusted. It\u2019s 9 years on and the M&M gang still live on the plot in their own little sheep condo being catered to by 3 humans. The funny thing is that Mowgli broke his toe on his back foot so I now have two sheep with a limp. On a good day I join them as my knees are rather wonky and my right leg is attached to a faulty foot.. Yvette has two sheep and we all have wonky legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have to be a little broken to fit in here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday 18 May, 2024 Mowgli and Mulan crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. They were 9 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I chose a beautiful day. The autumn sun was shining and there wasn’t any wind. The vet came and we put them to sleep in their sheep suite that had a thick bed accompanied by copious amounts of chicken food being fed to them. They went peacefully. I didn’t take it in my stride. I was a mess of snot and tears, sobbing on my vet’s head as I held their heads whilst he administered the euthanase. My tears dropped on the top of his head but he never faltered. He quietly injected them and didn’t even flinch. My groom, Lennie was crying as hard as I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mowgli’s leg had become progressively worse over the past few weeks. I saw that he was not only struggling with his broken toe on his back leg, he was also starting to show a limp in the front. I started preparing Lennie for the fact that we might have to make some hard choices soon. The news was not received well. He was very quiet and as I drove out of the property that night he waited for me at the gate.”Madam, I have a problem. My problem is Mowgli and Mulan. I look after them and it is hard to think I have to dig a grave for them..” Exactly my sentiments Lennie. So I put it off until my farrier came to do the horses feet last week. We have the donkeys, sheep and goats feet done as well due to the fact that the farm does not have hard ground which would naturally wear their hooves down.My farrier told me he couldn’t do the sheep’s feet as they were both very sore. That sealed the decision for me. I contacted the vet and set the date. We decided to bury them in our garden so we prepared their last resting place which is situated quite close to their sleeping quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is to the two sheep that could still outrun us all even though they were cripple and raid the food room creating havoc with the food bins. Somehow they could locate their favourite food, chicken food, and they would upend the bin and then guiltily gulp the food down Here is to the sheep that roamed the garden like ornaments and sounded the 4:30 dinner alarm like clockwork everyday. We choose our bad as my son always reminds me. I had to make some hard choices for their sake not taking my own feelings into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is to two common sheep that lived great lives and added so much flavour and laughter to our days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The M&M Suite is empty now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Introducing two characters that have added such rich colour to my life. Mowgli & Mulan, two beautiful pet sheep, residing at Be Our Guest. Here is how they entered my life. Yvette had a little lamb.. no two little lambs. It\u2019s the winter of 2015. It is so cold at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yesterdays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wildediaries.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/img_5138.jpg?w=343\")
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