Lammikins, the sheep with 9 Lives!

Lammie had a rough start to life to say the least. He was born in the afternoon, and was pretty much dead on arrival. Michelle managed to start the "puppy swing" and get him going, however every time she stopped, he stopped too. Finally after what seemd to take forever, he started to breathe on his own. Unfortunately, he was only about 2.5 pounds, half the weight of a normal lamb. He was too weak to nurse and unable to stand. After trying to hold his mother for milking without having success, frozen goat colostrum was used to try and get nourishment into his tiny body.

After having to tube feed him the first several days, Lammie seemed to be in the clear. Then he started to get a fever, a fever so high that it didn't even register on the thermometer. He was in trouble. After getting the fever under control, he started to get pus filled sores on his body. After several weeks of Naxcel and lancing, draining and flushing the sores, he seemed to recover.

By this time, Lammie decided he was human. The only mom he knew was Elaine and he would follow her all over the house. He slept in the bathroom and would go to work with her and generally follow her around like a dog. Soon Lammie decided that everything in the house was edible though. Needless to say, since he was much stronger and older now, he was moved out to live with the other lambs in the pasture behind the house.

Bad luck seems to follow Lammie though, and so one morning at feeding time, it was discovered that Lammie skinned all the hide off one ear down to the muscle and cartilage. After trying to save his ear for a week or two without success, Lammie had his ear removed.

So far, Lammie has been accident free. We hope it stays that way! Lammie still thinks of Elaine as his mom and will follow her like a little child. He lives out with some of the other sheep and has integrated with them like a normal sheep would.

He has also been an asset to the farm. Once when a bunch of ewes got loose and headed down the half mile driveway to the road and were uncatchable, Lammie was to the rescue! Without having any dogs available to get around and bring the sheep back up, Elaine and Michelle took Lammie down the hill with them, and magically when the other sheep saw Lammie heading into the pasture they decided to follow along after him instead of heading towards the road. Thanks Lammie!