A few days ago Farmer John arrived here at Struan Farm to drench my five remaining pet lambs following Chalk's recent unfortunate death. A drought provides the conditions for all sorts of bad things to happen to pet lambs and sheep, and we're doing what we can to minimise that.
Only one problem: pet lambs can (sometimes) be discipline problems. They tend to ignore working sheep dogs entirely, knowing better of course. When Farmer John tried to round up the five lambs from the paddock into the yards for their drench, pet lamb Spicy decided to jump over the fence and into another paddock, the one with the ewes. You may remember that Spicy has been a jumper from her early days, when she used to jump up over the retaining wall onto the front lawn and into the garden to munch my roses. It was her party trick.
Farmer John dealt with the four well-behaved darlings and left Mike and me some drench to deal with naughty Spicy. We found her hanging out under the trees in the shade with the ewes. She came over when called, but wouldn't move along down to the Cottage paddock and yards until I convinced (former pet lambs now pet ewes) Rosie and Cookie to help me, lured by a huge bag of apple pieces.
I also had to recruit nephew Mike on the quad bike to open the gate at the yards and keep everyone moving along from the back while I was leading them down the track in front. We finally got the three into the yard, Mike drenched Spicy, and we released her into the paddock with Sugar, Peaches, Fig and Pickle. I led Rosie and Cookie back up the track to join the ewes.
Quite the operation, phew! The things I get myself into here at Struan Farm. I suspect if someone had witnessed this parade they would have laughed themselves silly. But now the pets are drenched which should help them resist anything else bad that comes along.
And as I walked back to the house through the garden (panting somewhat after trotting around up and down), I was thanked for my efforts: a Monarch Butterfly drifted by! Not many of those around at all this year; I took it as a sign from the universe that good deeds do get noticed and rewarded.
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