New Kid On And In The Block

In an effort to get things recorded and caught up here, this post is mostly going to be "just the facts, ma'am" with some more photos coming later.

Meeting Ellie and Christopher.

This is the new kid.  We first heard about this sheep about a month ago.  He was living by himself in a paddock outside a nearby town.  His only companion had been killed several months ago and he was, of course, horribly upset.  His neighbors felt awful about it and befriended him over the fence and he quickly became part of their family.

They'd been told the owner was going to bring in some new buddies for him, but when nothing came of that and winter drew in and while the paddock was nice and full of grass, it did not offer any sort of shelter from the weather, they contacted me to see what they could do.

While definitely not ideal, a healthy animal can manage to get by with limited shelter.  What I felt worse about was his lack of even a single friend.  Sheep are flock animals.  They are wired to be part of a group of sheep. Even worse, his one companion who'd been killed...had been his mother.  

To make a long story short, they were finally able to purchase the sheep and we brought him over here Wednesday, just before the big winter storm hit south of here.  Normally he'd be in quarantine due to health reasons, but he'd already been all by himself since September.  His issue is he'd not been castrated as a lamb.  

I've got him set up where he can see and talk to the main flock, but hopefully not be able to breach the fence and gates to get in with the girls.  We sure don't need any baby Maisies!  He has a vet appointment on Monday, but even after being 'tutered, he can't be around any ewes for at least 45 days.  

I'm working on a better set up for him where he can have some wether companions, but want to get through the vet work first.  Currently he's living in Del Boca Vista, which would normally be just fine.  The issue with DBV is that's where Rocky and Jared ate breakfast and dinner.

"That's where me and Rocky EAT breakfast and dinner!"

Sigh...  I built a new "block" right next to the old restaurant and nothing has changed with the menu or service, but Jared is still a bit lot sore about it all.  It might look like he's talking to the new guy, but he's really just staring at the shed, horrified that it's not his anymore ;-).

The new sheep came in with the name Buddy, but as we've already had a Buddy, he's looking for a new name.  We are leaning towards Pinto.  

As far as breed, I'm stumped so far.  It sounds like his mother was probably a hair sheep, maybe a Katahdin.  He's got wool though so maybe a cross onto a wool breed?  He also has tiny horn scurs.  Some Jacob in the background?   Any thoughts?