This is "Boone," he was one of three lambs born this year to "Freckles." He has a brother that looked almost identical although he was polled, and a big sister that looked nothing like the two boys. They were born very healthy. My mother helped me with the lambing, it was her first time seeing a lamb born. She told me the next morning, "I wouldn't have wanted to leave this earth without seeing this, thank you." How fun that evening was for us.As most of you know who have followed my blog, we breed and raise sheep. We sell most of our lambs for meat, we raise a few for close family/friends, and we keep a few for good breeding stock, with desirable traits. Now that I've discovered spinning the fiber into yarn for projects, that plays a role in which sheep we keep and which ones we sell as well.
No matter what the outcome for the lamb, we raise all equal. We practice good husbandry skills and provide excellent care to each. We often have a waiting list of people who want to buy "our" lambs. We sold this lil' guy yesterday to a couple near our home. Both moved here from California, apparently they've raised chickens before, possibly a steer or two.........so they've told us........ Late last summer they asked us if they could purchase a lamb from us after it was weaned. I was a bit hesitant as I could tell from speaking to them, they really didn't have much common sense when it came to livestock (or chickens for that matter). However, to be fair in my assessment, I gave her books to read on raising sheep and I told her to "google" anything and everything to educate herself on sheep. From a physical standpoint it looked as though they were getting into the project of raising livestock. They purchased an additional acre of land, fenced it (and re-fenced it), build a small shelter large enough to house a steer and sheep, bought a feeder, a water trough and hay. They put some money into this little venture of theirs. When the time was nearing for weaning, I asked her to return the book(which he said they had been reading), and pick the young lamb up at 7a.m. on August 13th.
A day prior to the sell date, the neighbor guy called to tell me that they couldn't come pick up this lamb until 10 a.m. That wasn't good news for me as I don't feed any of my animals if one is getting transported, it's hard on them to deal with the stress on a full gut. Gives them a tummy-ache. Plus, "The Man" and myself had two surveying jobs to do that morning, over-time for him and a chance for me to help him. Also we had to get back at a reasonable hour to accept two squeezes being delivered to our hay barn that afternoon. This "10 a.m." time frame wasn't working for us..........so with a bit of protest, the neighbor said he'd be here at 8a.m.
"The Man" and myself got up early, had our couple cups of coffee and then went out to the barn. I always send an animal off with trimmed hooves, a worming shot, and a shipping fever shot. I do this early enough to make sure there is no reaction to any of the shots. All was fine with "Boone" that morning, his temperature was good, he was ready to go to a new home. The neighbors showed on time(thank goodness), and "The Man" did his magic on "whispering' to his sheep to calm them. He caught "Boone" without a hitch............however, about that time the neighbor opened the gate into the barn, and stormed in with his "noose" in hand which he abruptly put around the lambs neck, scaring the dickens out of the other sheep. Until the lamb was placed in the back of the truck did I notice the tightness around his lil' neck and the fact that his ear was cinched down in the tight mess. I told the neighbor to "take the tight rope off his neck, sit with him in the back of the truck and try this knot, something that allows him to breathe if he strains against it." He didn't tie the new knot, instead he held the lamb and they drove off down the road.
You know when you have a little voice inside of you telling you something? I didn't listen to that yesterday. I regret that today. GOD spoke to me yesterday and I just "blew him off." Pride and a promise I guess. Our Border collie even spoke to us and we didn't listen. He was very stressed the lamb was leaving and baaing in the back of the truck, to the tune of running the fence line crying as they drove off. It took awhile to calm him, those are his lambs and he bonds with them from the moment they hit this world. He's the only dog I allow into a lambing jug after lambing, he needs to smell them, lick them, bond with them, he does and the ewes are not in the least bothered by "Blue," they know he is safe.
The neighbors showed at 8a.m. to pick up their lamb, the sweet lamb perished by 9a.m. I keep asking myself, "how did this happen?" Ignorance..........lack of education, arrogance, pride...........all of the above. That was the voice......it told me to tell them I had decided to keep the lamb, raise it for ourselves...........I didn't because I had told them I would sell one to them. I suspected they weren't educating themselves properly, I was right.
The lil' lamb should have been transported to their ranch, confined in a small corral for about three days and allowed to acclimate SAFELY!! Instead, the lamb was tossed out in an acre pasture with a huge Hereford steer while the couple went indoors to do..........???? Evidently the lamb slammed his head into the welded livestock panel several times to the point of knocking itself out and collapsing in exhaustion. By the time we noticed them loading the lamb up in the back of the truck, we went over and asked, "is everything o.k." Response, "No, we're taking the lamb to the vet, he hurt himself." I will spare you further details on the injury to this lil' lamb, we suspect a broken neck. He was scared, wanted to go back home to his brother, mother and sister, the ranch he knew and loved..........his lil' life was premorse.
I will blame myself for not listening to "the lil' voice inside me," and for having suspicions about a couple not educated in raising sheep. They had this ideology that you could just "buy and animal, throw it in a pasture, fatten it up and all would be well." No common sense came into play here, no observation over the lamb when they took it home, no clue what to do with a lamb once he was down (they didn't move him out of the hot sun (91 F.) for over thirty minutes), they put him in a truck which had been in the hot sun, untethered, with no pad or blanket, and hauled him 17 miles from home. The sheep vet in town was five miles away.
This could have been prevented with proper "know how" on raising sheep. This could have been prevented had I not sold him to this couple.
We've learned a valuable lesson here, one I will never make again. I'm sorry sweet "Boone," so sorry.
"One act of pure love in saving life is geater than spending the whole of one's time in religious offerings to the gods.........." --Dhammapada
"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated."--Ghandi
