Happy Birthday Renny!

Renny, far left, out with her peeps this morning :-).It was just about this time, one year ago today, that I was driving back from an animal shelter a few counties away with a wretched sheep in the back of my car. I remember looking into the back of the shelter's pickup truck and seeing this horribly injured, rotting smelling, so covered in burrs that I couldn't tell if she had hair or wool (not that it mattered) animal that only barely resembled a sheep.

I backed my car as close to the pickup truck as I could and we dragged her into the back of my car on a sheet. We jostled her and she cried out. She cried some along the way out of there and I kept telling her it was going to be alright, it's going to be alright, it's going to be alright...but I knew it wasn't. I called our vets to let them know I was en route and that we probably needed to put her down.

As best we can piece together, Renny and two of her friends had been chased by some dogs. One sheep was found dead in the field. Renny was found stuck belly deep in mud in a pond. She'd been there for several days and coyotes had started eating her alive. A local news crew had been out, the humane society called. I received an email from my friend Shelley at the exact time Tim saw the story on the nightly news.

I knew there was no kind way to get her inside the clinic, so Dr. Baron came out to the car. In the cold rain. She had several of us stand around the opening of the car to block anyone passing by from seeing what she was looking at. She could instantly tell by the smell what sort of infection had set in and we were all surprised she was still alive. All surprised except Renny, now that we know her better ;-).

It took 2 hours to get her cleaned up and ready to head home. Dr. Baron would work on her for while and then see a scheduled appointment and then back out to the car. I remember being cold, Renny being cold. I remember calling my friend Eleanor, saying I wasn't sure we were doing the right thing, that I wasn't sure I could handle this. I remember calling Kathy to see if she could meet me at the farm to help me unload her. I remember Louann getting back from a farm call and offering to come out and help me take care of her that first night. I will never forget that.

I will also never forget Renny hobbling into the stall that late afternoon, with huge holes in her butt and both back legs, sticking her head down into a pile of hay, coming up with a huge mouthful. "I'm going to be okay. Don't you worry."

I will never forget her and Miss Ewenice tootling around in the back yard, napping under the pine tree. Me and Stella sewing up a warm sheep coat after a nice couple came out and sheared all the burrs and most of the mud off her. How Renny would calmly lay down when she knew we were going to doctor on her. Louann trying to pick her up near the end and Renny having gotten so fat she couldn't do it and we both got to laughing so hard that I think we might have hurt Renny's feelings :-).

Louann calls Renny Everybody's Ewe - Ebe. I have a feeling there is a little bit of her story tucked away in a lot of people's hearts, near and far. So many people came out and helped take care of her. We poked and prodded and scrubbed and cut and poked some more. She never held a grudge. I think she knew...or knowing Renny, probably didn't expect any less. There's probably a lesson there. There are probably many lessons from Renny.

I am not a tough person. I used to worry about something happening like getting really sick or injured and me not being able to handle it. I'd think twice about that now. I wasn't sure I could do the actual work to take care of her. I wouldn't think twice about that now. Some people might find it odd or wrong to think just because a sheep could live through what she did, that maybe I could too. I think now I probably wouldn't expect any less.


Happy Birthday Renny! You are your own best present. For us all.