My sister, Mudmama, is a farmer in Nova Scotia. She and her partner are raising goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits, in addition to children, dogs and cats.
And now – insert drum roll here – she has added two sheep to her flock! Not only that, but she named one of her sheep Zoom! After me! (I assume. Then again, I assumed she named her fourth child after my deceased dog, and found out later that no, it was just a coincidence.)
This is a picture of Zoom traveling by minivan to his new home, along with Mudmama, her partner, two of their human kids (not to be confused with goat kids) and an Icelandic sheep named Amos.
Zoom is a Border Cheviot. Apparently he has very springy fleece. He got off to a rough start in life, suffering a nearly fatal experience with an untrained sheepdog, and has a lot of scarring and a bum ankle as a result. On the bright side, he got to live in a house and be a pet because of it, and later on he lived on a fiber farm, and now he gets to live on Mudmama’s farm.
I think he looks very mellow and relaxed in the minivan, don’t you? They say he’s a very good traveler, so I’m hoping they’ll bring him along when they come to Ottawa next month.
I’d like to have a sheep named after me. That’s a pretty big honour!
I am definitely honoured! I don’t think anybody has named anything after me since I was about 13, and three little kids I babysit named their new puppy after me. I was so touched by that!
The new Zoom would fit right in with the gang in your banner.
And I’m happy for Mudmama – everybody should have sheep!
Gayle, you’re absolutely right, I need to find a way to get Zoom onto the banner!
I wish I had a sibling who raised animals (not counting designer-breed dogs).
I just wish my sisters lived closer to me.
If he is “fixed” (not the ankle part, ahem) then he is also a wether, so if you put a bell around his neck, you will have a real live bellwether (the origin of that term.) The problem with raising animals is that you really have to have a motor vehicle to ferry them around. If you were Amish, you could get away with a buggy, but you’d still need a horse to pull it. I don’t feel like I can even have a dog without a car to take it to classes and the vet and the dog park.
I had a dog for years without having a car. The vet was within walking distance and the dog park was across the street. (My dog didn’t go to school, so we didn’t have to worry about that.)
House sheep. Not nearly enough of that going around. Have you seen the sheep pictured at the Red Wall Gallery at SPAO? it’s on for another couple weeks.
Cool. I’ll check it out, now that I know there’s a sheep there!