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The Ewe that got savaged by a dog last year…

The Ewe that got savaged by a dog last year, had twin lambs last night. She had been named as Cookie. I tried to go up to her and the lambs to check the three of them out, but she ran away into the woods, with the lambs in tow, finding it difficult to keep up with her. I was surprised that she had ran away, only two days ago she came very close to me, when I was looking over another Ewe that had lambed. It was good to see her with the lambs after her ordeal of last year.

For the past two days I have been feeding the Ewes in the pen that I had made, so that I could catch them, and take them to the field that I had prepared. Both the Ewes and the lambs, were happy to go into the pen for the feed, so I decided today I would try to catch them. As long as I could get close to the gate when they went into the pen, I should be able to close the gate behind them.

There were most of the sheep in the field. I walked up to the pen, feed bag in hand, shaking the feed inside of it, and calling out for them to notice me. It did not take them long to respond. Dolly who I did not expect to see, was the first to follow me to the pen, her two lambs following behind her. More Ewes and lambs joined in. By the time I had got to the pen, there were to many sheep to go into it. That did not matter, as long as I could catch eight or so, it would be a good start.

I put the feed into the trough, within seconds the pen was full, and they had not taken any notice of me being there. I quickly closed the gate behind ten Ewes, some with lambs and others waiting to lamb. I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

I tied the gate, and made my way back to the farm yard to collect the quad and trailer. It took about twenty minutes to prepare the trailer, putting the high sides on to stop the Ewes from jumping out. I hadn’t prepared it before, as I was not sure if I would catch the Ewes. I suppose it took half an hour to get back to the pen. I reversed it up to the pen and opened the gates, tying them to the trailer, with the tailboard of the trailer down, so that they could not make their escape under the trailer. All was now safe to load the Ewes and lambs.

I looked and I had to look again, just in case I had missed them, for except one, all the lambs were missing. My heart went into my stomach. They had somehow got out of the pen. They were there before I had left to collect the quad and trailer. I could hear them behind the hedge, bleating for their mothers, and the mothers were calling back to them. I then realised that a gap in one of the gates was to large, and that was how they had made their escape. I must admit, I thought that even with a gap in the gate they would have stayed with their mothers. Oh no, on the contrary, when I went on the other side of the hedge, to try to get them back into the pen, instead of going back in, they hot footed away, with another Ewe and her lambs.

I will have to close the gap and try again tomorrow, but I did profess of not being a sheep farmer.

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