Saturday, May 16, 2015

Sheepish


This is why I am doing a year in 4H: I'm a little nervous around farm animals.
When I showed up at a hobby farm this afternoon to do an interview, the woman I was supposed to talk to wasn't home. I figured I'd wait around in case she wasn't gone long.
I was quite tickled when I pulled in and saw two black lambs trotting around the yard, plus two large, wooly ewes. The lambs were friendly, the black ewe was more concerned with finding shade than making friends with me but this gal -- I couldn't tell by the way she was looking at me if she was friendly or not.
She seemed a little hot and bothered in that thick, wool coat. 
So I just stayed away from her. Do sheep kick? Do they bite? Since I know nothing about sheep, particularly ones who are roaming free with lambs, I kept my distance.
Only this one decided to follow me. She trotted rather quickly after me. What does it mean when a sheep runs at you? Was she catching up or was she attacking me?
Thanks to my lone journalist instinct, I took this picture -- just for you -- before putting the vehicle between she and I. Just to be on the safe side. After all, there was no one home to administer first aid if the ewe bit my finger off.
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about.


 While I was sitting on the edge of the driveway watching the lambs graze, Caramel -- as I ended up calling her -- walked over to me and told me where she likes to be scratched.
So what did I learn? Don't judge a sheep by her wooly coat. But also, the more you hang around farm animals, the more confident you become. Especially when it comes to teeth and legs.
You can more from being with animals than by avoiding them (fear breeds ignorance, after all) so I really need to convince my husband that we need to have a few sheep around to mow the yard.


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