Leah came to us Spring 2018. Well, actually, she didn’t come to us. We went to get her. Marta had called several local breeders and let them know that if they had any lambs who weren’t doing well, couldn’t stand, or were being rejected by their mother, we’d take them and raise at a bottle lamb. At 11pm one night, we got a call. The gentleman said that he had a set of twins born earlier in the day, and that the girl still wasn’t standing and nursing 6 hours later (lambs are usually up in 30min). So, we drove an hour and a half out to their farm. At this point it was starting to snow. We walked around the pasture with a flashlight until we found Leah laying down covered in mud and shivering. We rolled her up in a blanket and took her home where she got a warm bath and a blow dry. She still was refusing to nurse, so we had to force feed her for 3 days just to keep her alive. Once she finally figured out that she liked milk, she perked up and started growing normally.
Now she’s the strangest sheep that you will ever meet. Most sheep are a little stand-off-ish and not super social with people. Leah adores people. She thinks she’s a person. She always wants to be around the people. So much so that she’s always getting in the way while stalls are being cleaned. We’re constantly tripping over her, and chasing her out of the barn just so that we can work with a little personal space! Leah loves going to events. She gets so excited when we get leashes out to start picking Sheep and Goats to go on the road Saturdays. She’s usually one of the first ones picked because she makes sure to be right by the gate and ready to go.
