I hadn't spend allot of time around sheep, certainly not in close contact anyway. Since it's winter, they are very understaffed, and since I have more time on my hands these days, I told them I would love to help in anyway that they may need me.
Lately it's been helping with their sheep. The whole pen of sheep are expecting, well seven or eight of them have had their lambs at this point. What an incredible experience it has been for me! There were already a few lambs born before I started helping, the first week I was there, a little boy was born. He ended up catching pneumonia, poor little guy. He was a fighter though, and he is certainly flourishing now! I named him "Little Champ" I think the name suits him nicely : )
The next week, twin girls were born. Unfortunately only one survived. Most of the births have been multiples, and one of them has been born with something wrong with its' back legs. They don't know why it's happening.
"Sweet Little Girl" as I named her was born with this same leg condition. However, she is doing really great! Her mom doesn't pay as much attention to her, not as much as I'd like to see anyway. They say that if a baby is born with something wrong with it, the mother tends to distance herself, thinking that it won't make it. Well, Sweet Little Girl isn't going anywhere, not as long as I can help it anyway! I'm pretty sure that she and Little Champ have some house cat in their genes, they're so snuggly.
Each night that I spend with them I check and make sure all the moms are eating, and all the babies are alert and nursing. I'll kneel down and let the little ones come close to me, slowly their moms are trusting me more and more, which is amazing because sheep generally don't like people.
The two little ones will come and nuzzle up to me, crawl onto my lap and try nursing on my finger tips. They're the cutest little things ever!
Two more were born yesterday, both healthy, and it looks like another mama will give birth tonight!
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