Amazing Sheep

The view from the Sheep's Paddock

                                              
I have been in Auckland for the past few days and just got back to the farm. The sheep acted as if they didn't know me which was an improvement. They all froze in place as I squelched my way down the drive. Yes, it's still raining. Don't ask. So I get to the gate and start to climb over. Red alert! Red alert! Sheep running everywhere. The brown ewe starts bleating for her lamb. Said lamb scrambles heroically toward Moms. Unfortunately Snowball is not the Einstein of the herd and she can't find her way through the far gate. She wanders desconsolately up and down the fence mere inches away from the gate. Never figures out that gate thing. The brown ewe keeps on bleating forelornly.

Finally the Einstein of the herd who has never before shown the slightest interest in another sheep's lamb, goes to Snowball and gently nudges her through the gate. And then, turns and goes back down the hill. Selfless heroism since you can never tell when I'll show up with knife and fork in hand. That nudging deed brought her perilously close to me (just about a city block away). I am amazed at that random act of kindness. I am turning it over in my mind even now. The sheep had to have done it on purpose or she would have gone through the gate herself. I know it wasn't Snowball's mother because Snowball's mom is our only brown ewe. Was she just tired of hearing the bleating, or was her heart touched by poor Snowball trotting up and down the fence line? Or was she just plain embarrassed by the sheer stupidity of the other sheep? No answers yet.

Speaking of stupidity brings me back to possums. The new favorite feeding ground is where I just planted 50 daffodil bulbs. So Dan has taken to putting the familiar bright yellow trap right there. I mean school bus yellow. You'd think even a possum would notice it. They do. They head right for it. (Sorry, bad pun.) They stick those snouts right in and right down comes the metal thing and thwack, the neck is broken. Dan has collected quite a few in the new hunting fields.

Last night he was due to go to a farmers' meeting so put out the trap before dark. He left for the meeting a bit before 7pm and already had bagged his quota for the night. In a hurry, he released the body, reset the trap and left the possum lying inches from the trap. He was surprised !! in the morning that he hadn't gotten another victim. I figure even possums aren't dumb enough to step over a corpse to stick their heads in the trap.