Night Watch

My best friend Stephanie, whom I met in college, and I love sheep. For one of our classes we had to pick a species to show for the Little I Showmanship at UCONN. We had a choice between sheep, pigs, horses, and cows.

We both LOVE horses but we had to pick something that we haven’t been around so we picked sheep. We had to train them which is a lot easier said then done. Walking them around, getting them used to being on a lead. Once that part was done we had to shine them up to get them ready for the show. We bathed, carded, and sheered them which I really enjoyed. Sheep are a little tough to handle but I loved it. Stephanie won the show and I got second to last but it was still a lot of fun. Stephanie and I had a blast working with them.

Once the show was over we still wanted to be a part of the sheep world. We had heard about Night Watch which is when the ewes are ready to give birth. They almost always give birth in the safety of the night. We just flipped, getting the chance to watch a lamb be born, we were in!

Night fell, it was cold and smelly in the sheep barn but we were excited. There was hay bales which we dosed on that were next to the ewes so if anything were to happen we would be there, ready to go. The night went on and on but nothing happened.

The next night was special. About three hours into it we noticed an ewe acting strange. Walking over to her our eyes got big as we noticed a little head peaking through. Once the birthing process was over we saw that the ewe wasn’t doing her motherly things like licking and trying to protect her baby. Stephanie and I knew that she was rejecting it and we had to step in. Apparently I wasn’t thinking before I went out to the sheep barn that night because I had put my nice pea coat on. I had to pick up the lamb which was covered in slimy, icky birth and carry it over to the lambing cubicles where there are heat lamps and dry straw. I was covered in birth, it was nasty.

Once the lamb was in the safety of the cubicle we went over to get the barn manager to let him know that the ewe had rejected her baby. He had gotten towels, a bottle and formula, and a long skinny rubber catheter to force feed the lamb. Once the lamb was dry, warm and fed we knew he was going to be ok and let him go to sleep under the safety of the heat lamp.

Stephanie and I visited him everyday for a couple of weeks just because we were so attached. We learned that the same ewe had given birth to another lamb and had rejected it. I guess she just wasn’t ready to be a mom. The experience will never be forgotten, it was amazing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Lora's Stories.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.