Saturday afternoon I stepped into the barn to find three ewes clustered around two little black babies. One of the ewes I recognized from past lambings as the “spotted black baby thief.” She had been interested in every baby born for many years, and had never had a lamb herself. Although she was the only black ewe there, she probably wasn’t the mother. Of the remaining two, number 56 had an amniotic sack trailing down her legs. The other ewe had a clean, dry vulva. When I picked up the babies and started moving them down the barn toward a jug, only Prima, number 56, followed me.
I dried the lambs and turned on the heat lamp. Then I ran back to the house to find a bottle of iodine for their umbilical cords, and Dave. New lambs just need to be shared.
No matter how many times you've seen it or how tired you are, there is always a tingle of excitement.
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