Truly Never a Dull Moment

For a life long city girl, life on the farm can be quite traumatic. Last night when we climbed into bed for the night we could hear the mother sheep calling and calling for her lamb. Yes, the lamb mentioned in earlier blog. We knew something was wrong. Dan threw on some clothes and wandered the pasture to investigate...no sign of the lamb or foul play. We decided the lamb most probably had been abducted by a fox (which sometimes happens) and was gone. The mother cried all night. When I awoke this morning I heard the mother call and then heard a reply to her call. Dan and I raced out to discover a neighbor with the lamb. It seems his dog had grabbed the lamb and taken it home. They wrapped it in a towel, put it in a box in a warm spot for the night and returned the little one this morning. We immediately put the lamb in the pasture with the mother but unfortunately she wouldn't let it nurse. He probably had human smell over him and although she recognized his cry, she didn't recognize his odor. We tried much coaxing to get mother and lamb into the barn's nursery but with no success. We are now bottle feeding the poor thing and letting it rest. The door is open and the mother can get in but is no longer showing interest. Mother Nature is not always kind. If we can't encourage the mother-child reunion, we may be the little ones new mommie! Stay tuned for further developments.