Remember how I told you last time that our teenage sheep ram escaped?
We didn't see or hear anything of him for two full days.
The first day, we kept driving around, hoping to see him. He's pure white, which is easy to spot in the current brown background.
But, nothing.
We thought he was a goner, eaten by coyotes.
But then, we got a phone call last night, from an unknown number. Thankfully, Rich isn't a call screener like I am, because I never pick up calls from people I don't know (and half the time, I won't pick them up from people I do know - I'm not a phone person).
The caller told us that they were pretty sure our ram had joined their herd of young cows. "There's a white sheep running with our heifers. Could he be yours?"
Since the herd was grazing just down the road from, chances were high that he was.
We jumped into the car and drove down there.
The farmer was waiting for us, picture-perfect in his gum boots, plaid shirt, jean jacket and John Deere cap. He pointed towards the herd.
"Is that him?"
Sure enough, it was.
I apologise for the quality of the photos. They're crappy beyond belief, I know.
I only had my cellphone with me, and we were pretty far away.
We did go inside the field, newly-purchased net in hand, to capture our runaway. I had my phone out, ready to document the whole episode for the blog.
But as soon as I tried to venture away from Rich, he sharply told me to stay with him. "These guys can kill you!" he warned me. "They will stampede you to death."
What?! They were barely a year old!
"Herds like that have killed people before," my husband informed me, still striding confidently towards these so-called killers. I hurried after him, staying as close as humanly possible. I didn't know anything about cows; but why, if they were that dangerous, were we walking amongst them??
"They know I'm not afraid of them, we're safe," he assured me, periodically raising his arms threateningly and chasing the more curious/brave/aggressive(?) cows away.
By now, I had pretty much forgotten about our teenage runaway. All I cared about was getting as far away from the cows as possible.
Not so my farmer-husband. He really tried to catch our sheep boy, but it was hopeless.
He's a clever boy: He realized that he would be safe with a big herd of cattle, and had somehow managed to get accepted by them as one of their own. He ran right in the middle of them, protected from all sides.
We gave up in the end. The farmer told us we could try to catch him when they moved the herd to another pasture, which will happen in about three weeks.
We checked on him today; he seems perfectly fine. Talk about adjusting to your surroundings! This guy has it figured out to a T.
P.S. I send out a weekly love letter that will make you feel 23% better about yourself, guaranteed, or your money back. You should totally sign up here!
He's like Ariel in the Little Mermaid. He doesn't WANT to be a sheep. He wants to be a cow!
ReplyDeleteOmg, that's so perfect! You're completely right.
DeleteI've been checking on him every day, he's still there! It's been a week, and I think he's there to stay. He looks happy!