Meet Clarence the Lamb

Oh, boy, oh boy!

Dorothy the sheep‘s little baby boy surprised us the weekend before last on a quiet Saturday evening, turned not-so-quiet. While relaxing inside the house, Pre-Hubs already drifting off to sleep after a hard day’s work, I heard Dorothy’s cry from outside. She’s normally kind of a noisy little thing, that Dot, but this sounded a bit different. Not a “Feed me!” cry, or a “Hello, what have you got up there?” inquisitive baah from below the deck… no, this was something different.

Though it didn’t sound as though she was in any sort of urgent need, or pain, or anything worrisome, I thought I’d go check on her, just to see.

I headed out with my flashlight phone to take a peek. I could see her, right behind the house, standing up. But she was licking something, on the ground…

It was a little, black…ball… of… OMGITSALAMB!!

I raced inside to tell PH the good news! “Wake up, wake up! Dorothy had a LAMB! …And he’s okay!”

He quickly followed me outside to see.

“Oh, my gosh! He is so… cute!?” he observed, puzzled.

“I KNOW. I thought for sure we’d end up with some crazy-looking mini E.T. sheep on our hands.”

Again, let’s be honest. Dorothy is not exactly known for her stunning looks.

But this little lamb was just beautiful! Jet black, with a pretty white patch on top of his head, he had big, kind eyes and the sweetest face. With many licks and nudges from mama, he soon was standing up, attempting to balance on his wobbly little legs.

With our heartbreaking most recent experience (mere days before this one) of a newborn baby animal on our humble homestead, we were overjoyed to see this tiny life before us, thriving. Watching him take his first steps felt like nothing short of witnessing a miracle.

But, we soon began to worry when our precious new lamb started finding his way toward mama’s udder for his first drink — and Dorothy wouldn’t let him. Every time he got near it, she would whip around to face him, and lick. He was already well-cleaned, she had done a great job of that. But she wouldn’t let up and allow him to nurse.

We tried to give them their space in hopes that Dorothy was simply being shy about it. But each time we checked on them, there was no tiny milk mustache to be found. No sign that he had gotten his critically important dose of colostrum, the life-sustaining first meal every new tummy needs.

But since we had read that as long as baby gets it within the first 24 hours, he should be okay, we decided to get a few hours of sleep before bothering the pair again.

In the morning, after seeing Dorothy continuing to not allow her lamb to nurse, we decided it was time to intervene. Unsuccessful attempts at holding her still long enough to allow for a suckle proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated. Wrestling to hold her near a wall, we teamed up to at least try to “strip” her teats for her — they could be plugged with a natural waxy substance that prevents bacteria from entering.

With the help of some knowledgeable Facebook friends, we learned that she could have been in pain from her full udder, and that getting the flow moving might solve the problem. A lot of pushing and shoving and squeezing and kicking and muddied-up clothes later, we managed to milk out some of the contents of Dorothy’s udder and bottled it for baby, which he happily took.

Whatever had been bothering her earlier must have been alleviated by the forced milking, because later that day, we saw our dear sheep happily standing for baby’s hungry little face to suckle on her.

The two have been doing wonderfully ever since. But this precious baby of ours needed a name!

Facebook to the rescue. We put some choices on the ballot, and had our friends vote on the name. “Clarence” was the winner!

Clarence has been quite busy this first week of his life —  learning how to be a sheep and attempting to copy every single thing that mama Dorothy does, including baaah-ing at the top of his tiny lungs, waking us up every morning when Mama wants a meal.

I can’t believe how much he has grown in only a little over a week! He’s getting so much sturdier on his little legs. Clarence loves to spend his days bouncing around in circles around Dot, and racing up and down the field.

My favorite thing to watch is when he nurses — he wags his tail like a puppy! Hilarious! You can watch him wag, and bounce, and do all sorts of cute things in this video montage I took of him. I just love this little guy!

 

 

Aah! Isn’t he just ridiculously adorable?

Of course, the other wonderfully exciting aspect of Clarence’s entrance into the world, is still yet to come — our chance to finally milk our own animal! We’ll be getting fresh, raw milk from Dorothy after this week. I can hardly wait!

 

Only one negative to all this — I seriously don’t think I’ll be able to eat lamb like, ever again. Anyone else?? Did you SEE that face?! 😉

 

 

{This post is being shared with Simple Lives Thursday!}