Last Wednesday I was aware that, perhaps, we had had a visitor. Tell-tale signs in the garden suggested a rabbit, a fox perhaps; surely not a sheep. On Thursday I went into the garden and was working away clearing weeds. A movement made me look up, and there was a young sheep calmly munching its way across the lawn. He was a handsome young fellow with a soft set of horns.
My husband set about trying to find out who owned him. Messages and a visit from our neighbour farmer led nowhere. On Saturday I tried the police but was told I needed to phone the council on Monday. My husband was back on the case – and found out from our other neighbouring sheep farmer that the markings indicated that it belonged to a farmer further down the valley. I had taken photographs and one had captured the number on the ear tag. Result. A couple of phone calls later a day was set for our young visitor to be collected. By Monday evening he was gone.
Apart from the ‘presents’ he left on the lawn and the drive he was a delightful visitor. He was also very clever.
By the fourth day, and knowing that he was going to be collected, we decided that perhaps he needed to be ‘corralled’ into a smaller space. An area of the garden that he appeared to favour was cordoned off with a low current electric fence. It included the shaded ‘grove’ that he’d been resting in, an area of wild grasses where he’d eaten, and the natural pond for drinking. He appeared to be content. The following morning he was still there.
Then I noticed droppings on the drive; my husband found some on the front garden lawn. I went back to the corralled space. He was still there but a section of the fence wires were entangled. My husband untangled them; I went out a couple of hours later and there was the ram happily munching away by the gates. It was obvious that during the previous evening he had escaped his confinement, had a wander to the the front garden, then returned to his “electrified prison”. Now that’s clever!
I wish all neighbours and visitors were as delightful as he.
Intelligent. Entertaining. Shame about the poo!
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Stay well. Stay safe. Stay alert to the beauties around you.
Marilyn X
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