The Colors of Spring!

Happy May Day, Everyone!  Today is the second anniversary of Sundance Rescue and Recovery’s Farm Sanctuary, and I can’t think of a better way to share this day with you than to tell sheep stories!  As most of you know, we now have six sheep, and they had quite a week for the last full week of April.  Just for a quick re-cap…

On Sunday the 21st, Willa and Bandit joined us, moving into the quarantine pasture for the next 30 days. Two days later, the 23rd, was shearing day ~ immediately followed by bitter temperatures and strong winds on the 24th. Then it started raining off and on for days, but the temperatures moderated and the clouds broke just in time for barn clean-out day on the 27th! Phew! Thankfully, they all seem to be coping well as we move into May!  Here are some more story details!

Willa and Bandit

When they first arrived, both girls put aside their nervousness to focus on eating the pasture grass, apparently something they’ve had too little of in their short two years of life. We don’t know the farm they were born on, but from there, they were transferred as babies to another home with two other baby sheep. That owner wanted to butcher them for meat and did so to one of them. Another one, she traded for a puppy. We don’t know where that one is. Willa and Bandit were still supposed to be butchered, but they’re so small that it wouldn’t have been worth the price of butchering. (I’m sick just writing this!) The owner started feeding them table scraps, which is horror for a sheep’s digestive system. That’s when another family stepped in and rescued the girls. This family, though, were not planning on keeping them, and so, found us.  

These two girls are absolutely darling.  Once their wool was gone, we saw how truly tiny they are; their heads don’t even come to my waist (and I’m not a tall person!). They are still eating the pasture grass at amazing rates, and they nibble hay whenever they go past the hay rack. They are very skittish and have clearly never learned that a human hand can pet and stroke and help them feel safe. Slowly, though, they’ve started coming to me as I sit or stand with them. 

Willa was the first to nibble on my fingers, but Bandit is now slowly approaching my outstretched hand.  I have to admit, though, that I’ve been a little sly in helping them come close enough to sniff.  I quickly learned that they are intensely curious about our cats, and because I’m usually in the company of some combination of Tiger, Echo, Miracle and Mittens when I’m with the girls, Willa just can’t resist trying to get close to their wagging tails to investigate. And if a cat just happens to be sitting on my lap, well, Willa can just investigate me and the cat!  As a strategy, it’s definitely worked. Now they come to the fence when they see me, or when I approach with an evening bowl of grain.  Small steps, I know, but such good ones! They’ve two and a half weeks until their Freedom Day, and I know they’ll be just fine. 

Duchess and Her Dandelions!

Duchess’s favorite time of year is upon us ~ it’s dandelion season!  I’m so grateful this little girl survived the winter and can enjoy her favorite treat again. I worried about how she would tolerate Katie shearing her because her balance is so bad these days. (Her rupture hangs mainly on her left side, so she walks either lopsided or sideways.) Katie and Matt did a fabulous job helping her stay stable during the entire time. Unfortunately, her left back leg knocks against her rupture as she walks, often causing a rubbed and raw patch on her skin. Somehow, her lanolin helps keep the area healed, and we didn’t want to lose this benefit. Our vet suggested that Katie keep a four inch band of wool around the bulging rupture, so we did. I’m not sure whether it’s working yet, but Duchess isn’t minding the wool ~ and apparently, it’s fine with her that she looks like she’s wearing a tutu! 

The most glorious thing about Duchess, though, is her gentleness and desire to include all in whatever is going on.  The cats always say hi to her first, and so far, she’s the one who’s been most welcoming to Willa and Bandit.  There’s a six foot gap between the quarantine pasture and the little pasture, but Duchess will lay right up to her side of the fence, facing Willa and Bandit, keeping them company. I’m looking forward to the day when she can graze with her new friends. 

Mary, Cricket and Bella

Our Ambassador Sheep went right to work welcoming Willa and Bandit when they arrived. They met  them on their side of the fence and stayed right there for the rest of the day. They’d munch a mouthful of grass, then look up to the newcomers; munch some more, then move right back against the fenceline. Bella was the most curious, and I’d swear I actually saw her tail wag a few times as she gazed at Willa and Bandit! 

A Curious Bella?

Our Ambassador Sheep, though, were passionately unimpressed with shearing. Duchess was up first, but as Katie and Matt started shearing her, Cricket became more and more nervous, wanting to escape the sound of the electric shears and desperately wanting to be in the same stall as Mary and Bella.  After he and/or Bella (I’m not sure because I was watching Duchess) broke the hinge off the gate to the stall, we got the message and let him in with his mom and sister. After that, things moved quickly through Mary, then Cricket, then Bella. We watched as Bella, the last one shorn, ran out the door to join the others. They all took little leaps; they all scratched their backs on gate posts; and they all stood shivering in the wind and the sun, staring in puzzlement at the humans watching them. 

An Unimpressed Cricket!

 Today, the winds have warmed, the grass is greener for all the rain, and the temperatures feel more springlike.  All six sheep have spent the day grazing and dozing in the pastures.  They all have one more big day ahead of them in the coming weeks ~ the yearly vet visit, complete with shots, and then they’re all cleared to leap and munch and chase all the cat tails our feline crew will let them.  On May 22, Bandit and Willa will move out of quarantine into the Little Pasture during the day and the barn at night ~ but I’m leaping over too many days yet with just the two of them and me ~ and various cats ~ getting to know each other to think about their Freedom Day.  When it arrives, though,  I’ll definitely send pictures! 

Here’s hoping you and all you love have a joyous May!

All our best! Tracy and John