Meet Molly and Cora

It all started when we the vet came to our house for a house call and she told me about her sheep  - George.  I asked her why she had just one sheep?  She said it was to keep her horse company.  ”Ah ha” I thought!  Turns out that sheep and horses are on the same social level and can become great friends.  I have always dreamed of having a horse but knew that I couldn’t have two . (horses need someone to keep them company or they get bored and naughty)   A couple of weeks ago I messaged a facebook friend knowing that he has a sheep connection (sounds illicit, right?) he put me in contact with his mother-in-law who happened to have two orphaned lambs.  Often when a momma ewe has babies, if she has twins, she will choose only one to care for.  Leaving the other to fend for themselves.  This is how I ended up being a surrogate mother to two 5 day old lambs from two separate mothers.  Both from a set of twins.

The day I picked them up I had them in a dog crate in the van.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them and still had to do a plethera of afterschool activities –  like any mom has to do.  So…they just came with us.

Griffin getting the first feed in.  In the car.

(please excuse the Iphone pic – it’s what I had available)

They have settled nicely into our family life. They are living in our dining room for now and need to be fed every 4 hours. But they sleep though the night. Phew!

The puppy and the cats are very interested

They will eat a bunch and then we’ll let them out to wander around the living room. They follow the children’s example – running around the “circle of terror” which is through our living room, past the kitchen and back into the living room. I’ll try to find a video later. Craziness. Anyone that has had the opportunity to see lambs play will know what I mean. They do something like this: jump straight up in the air and when they land they stamp down twice with their feet. Then they’ll run a little and flip their butts in the air sideways and give a donkey kick. They’ll land on their hip and spin around to get up. They’ll be a little confused as to where they are but they don’t care. They’ll start the antics all over again. Total amusement!

I took them out to visit the goats yesterday. That was fun. Owl gave Cora a little head butt to try and keep her in line. But she took it all in stride.

I hope they’ll only be in our living room for a couple of weeks. While it’s cute and convenient for the bottle feeding, I’m getting tired of sweeping up straw.