"If you find a sheep left all by itself in the barn when everyone else goes out to graze, this is normally a sign of trouble. However, if the sheep is a fat, fluffy white one who also has a big black dot on one ear, that's just Baba...and she's most likely just fine."
Baba could not care less if everyone else has left her to go out to pasture. If she's not hungry or is enjoying a particularly good nap, she's not going. She also does not care if everyone is bedded down for the night in the cozy barn. If she's hungry, she's going to go out and graze. In the dark. By herself.
She has always been this way. Her favorite place to graze used to be down by the creek. This could be due to fond memories of hanging out there in the evenings with me, Hank and Betsy when she was a lamb.
I used to not worry about her doing that when Hank was alive. Now I don't let her (or any other sheep) go down there at night. When she moved herself into Easy Breezy this winter, she was happy to find she could now go out into the securely fenced yard all night if she wanted...until Rocky started having so much vision trouble.
Rocky stays out in Del Boca Vista during the day, but I bring him into Easy Breezy at night so he has some company and a warm, soft bed and can only get a little lost. Jared really doesn't like being in DBV and prefers to be indoors. He takes care of Rocky during the day so he gets to choose where they sleep at night ;-).
Because I don't want Rocky to wander out the front barn doors at night and either get lost or tangled up in something he can't see, I've started putting gates up to keep everyone safe inside. This is not making Baba happy.
This is bothering her so much so that she and I had a big knock down drag out about it last night. A literal knock down, drag out. She kept trying to knock down the wooden gates or at least drag them out of the way so she could go where she wanted. I felt a bit like I was trying to put a toddler to bed.
The incident reminded me that I'd missed sharing this trait in her SOTW post. Putting the February end of the month photo compilation reminded me that I had a good picture of her at night. And now typing it up here has reminded me that I forgot to post the month end on here as well.
Two posts in one day, twice in a week. I wish I was just really ambitious and not just disorganized ;-).
3 comments:
Love that photo with Hank and Betsy....
Ha- an independent sheep- must be why I like her. :0)
I definitely remember Baba as a lambie. It's hard to believe it's been 11 years already.
I don't remember how long before that I found your blog thanks to cecelia at the kitchen's garden.
I miss Hank and I know you must too...good to see his photo again:)
Post a Comment