Walk up the fields (or see who I met this week!)

Late one night last week we heard terrible screams outside. We figured it was the foxes. They sound eerily human sometimes. The next day I noticed the ravens gathering at the top of the field and knew something had died.

So we headed off for a look.

Two sheep had met their end. One of them was barely more than bones and a scattering of wool. The other looked like she had died more recently. Murph and I both peered over the hedge for a look, quietly, so as to catch a glimpse of any would be scavengers. There was nothing about and we were about to head home when we heard a loud bleat........I looked down and there was a tiny lamb!

Ovis aries- a sheep!

Murph was very good and obeyed my requests for him to leave the wee fella alone so I went over for a look. I presumed (wrongly) that the lamb had been orphaned and that the dead sheep nearby was it's mother so I picked him up and brought him home.

Seriously, how could you resist this face? I called our neighbour the farmer who came to collect him. I was already making plans for how we could keep him when he arrived. I realised at this stage that picking the wee fella up was probably not the wisest thing to do as my smell would be all over him. The farmer explained that the dead sheep was not it's mother so he would bring the lamb down to the flock and when he called out the mother should come running. The sheep that had died was an older sheep who had most likely died of natural causes.

Later that day my neighbour texted to say that the lamb had been reunited with it's mother....and it's twin! Seemingly she had wandered away with one lamb and forgotten about the other. I probably shouldn't have touched him at all and was relieved to hear that his mother had accepted him again. But it was so lovely to hold a tiny little lamb for a while!