Brave Lambie – Photo: L. Weikel

Lamb

Nope; it’s not what’s for dinner. Not our dinner, anyway. This lamb, at least, is one of the creatures I call to in a sing-song voice as we make our way up the hill that is the last major leg of  our daily walks.

I love springtime. I especially love it because there seems to be a steady supply of itty bitty lumps of fluff in the fields each day, struggling to get to their feet in order to begin the somewhat unsteady business of frolicking. My favorites so far this year are the two pristine white fluffballs hovering close to their very black-wooled mother with the white splotch right in the center of her forehead.

The three of them are simply adorable. The twins because they’re hoppers. And the older they get, the more they bounce off each other, off their mother, and recently, I’ve seen them bouncing off other members of the herd as well. The elders are marvelously patient.

Mom, however, is obviously savvy to us and protective of them. While the lambs seem to respond to me with increasingly predictable (and precious) curiosity as I address them each day in my sing-song greeting, mom makes it clear to them that they should not be tempted by my seductively kind voice. No. They must beware of me. I’m probably one of ‘those’ two leggeds who like to steal little lambies who don’t stick close enough to their mommies and get stolen away, only to end up on two-leggeds’ dinner tables!

The Stuff of Nightmares

You can tell by the horrified looks on the babies’ faces that these lamb’s tales are the stuff of nightmares. “Really, mommy? She’d do that to us?”

“Well, she might not, but the ones who look like her might.”

It’s interesting to notice their reaction to my greetings each day. I swear, there’s a recognition. Even if it’s just the high pitch of my voice. One of the elders of the herd consistently answers me. Each and every time I call out my long, “Halloooooo, babies!” that particular ewe responds.

Yes, she could be telling me to get lost. But it doesn’t feel like that’s the message. It feels much more like she’s greeting me with enthusiastic recognition.

The message I’m getting at the moment is that I need to look up ‘sheep.’ Not tonight, though. It’s too late.

(T-581)