Off To A Wild Start

A bonus story - aka not one I thought I'd be telling!

We did the spring sheep vaccinations this morning.  I've had some trouble giving bottle lambs their CDT shots and boosters, but never any trouble with adult sheep.  Still, it's always a possibility and it's not a bad idea to keep a shot of epinephrine on hand.  

I've had babies get pretty punky for a day or so after getting a vaccination.  You always hate to see babies (or anyone) not feeling well, but we give them good supportive care and everything ends up fine.  Last year Bullwinkle had an anaphylactic reaction :-o.

It didn't happen right away.  Seems like it was almost an hour later that I noticed him having trouble breathing.  I threw him in the car and was at the clinic in less than 10 minutes.  Dr. Bridge was on call (it was the weekend, of course) and she got him straightened around right away. Still, very scary!

We saved Bullwinkle for last this morning just in case he had trouble.  He was fine.  I turned everyone out and guess who was laying around looking droopy.  Liddy.

"Liddy?"  

"Yes, momma."  

"What's the matter, baby?"  

"I dunno."  

"You don't want to go out and eat grass?" 

"No."  

"Would you like some hay here in the barn?" 

"No."

If you flunk the eating test...

I got her up and noticed her ears hanging down.  She shook her head a couple times.  Is she breathing a little too fast?  Standing kind of funny?  Then she started coughing.  I panicked and hit speed dial. Dr. Bridge, on call this weekend as well, was there in 15 minutes.

She wasn't having an anaphylactic reaction, thankfully, but something was definitely wrong.  She also had a bit of a temperature, so she may have been working on a respiratory issue and the vaccination pushed her over the edge.  We treated her accordingly and I was to keep an eye on her...

Here's where it gets a little funny.  Dr. Bridge didn't meet Liddy as a baby and doesn't know her history of quality napping.  As we watched Liddy standing in the barn lot with her eyes getting sleepy, she said, "Liddy, you look like you need to take a nap."

Poor Liddy.  Almost killed on the first day of her Iknitarod.  That sounds more like a Maisie story!

So, as the sun was starting to set, I finally got everything together to start knitting.  I picked out the bag I wanted to use, wound the yarn into balls, dug out my red lantern, ...

The needles I'm using are the same needles I used for the first Liddy shawl.  See that crooked spot in the blue cable down towards the bottom right?  That's the spot Liddy chewed on as a baby and I had to sand the teefer marks off :-).

Auntie Reg gave me these darling sheep - a momma and a baby who are actually hot/cold packs. Wait, what?  You can't put sheeps in the microwave :-o.  They tuck in perfectly at the top of my knitting bag and will be great mascots for this year :-).

By late afternoon Liddy felt up to going out for a little bite.  "Liddle?"

"Yes, momma?"

"It's time to start knitting."

"Okay, I'm ready!"