This morning dawned a nice, muggy warm spring day. It was
one of those mornings that I needed everything to go right because I had a very
tight schedule and it was going to be hard to get everything done. I had done
my preparation the night before and chores should have been a breeze. However,
it was one of those mornings that I swear my animals and nature conspire
against me.
I don’t know if you are aware of it but I have concluded
based on my years of experience that sheep are stupid. Not just stupid but mind
numbingly stupid, sometimes I wonder how they manage to breath and eat. This
morning was one of those days that provide proof of their lack of intelligence.
It all started with my usual walk through the pens. I do
this every morning to make sure that I do not have any sick animals or new
babies. Immediately I was mobbed by a whole flock of bottle lambs. Keep in mind
that they have not been fed for about two weeks now and I do this walk through
every morning. This is the first time in about a week that they have paid any
attention to me. I do not know what made them think I was suddenly going to
start feeding them again, but they certainly had that impression. Wading
through the sea of bottle babies made my walk through last longer than
expected.
During the walk through I did see a lamb caught in the
fence. This is the same lamb that has been caught in the fence, in the same
place, for the past three mornings. The last two days it simply took me turning
his head (an act he seemed incapable of) and pushing his little wooly head back
through the fence. Somehow this morning he had managed to jam his head in a
different angle and I could not budge it lose. Finally, in desperation I gave
up, went to the barn and came back with the bolt cutters and cut him loose. For
all of that he simply shook his head at me and ran off. The ungrateful little
booger.
I fed the lambs without incident and moved on to the ewe
pen. Keep in mind that the ewes have been in this pen for about a month now and
the routine is the same every morning. The pen is two pens together. The pen wraps
around the lambing barn and the bunks are about ten feet from the side of one
pen but they must go around the barn to get to them. It is something that they
have successfully navigated every morning until today. I dumped the feed in the
bunks and about five of the fifteen ewes in the pen came around the barn and
began to eat. The other ten stood ten feet away looking through the panels and
started to threaten a riot.
Sensing that two things might happen. Either the five ewes
were going to eat way too much grain or the other ten were going to make a new
path to the bunks I jumped into action. Climbing over the panel with one of the
empty feed buckets I walked around the shed, just like they had for the past
month and led them up to the bunks. We had a small rain shower, the ewes were
wet and each one of them managed to rub up against me as they went past making
me very wet. As this happened I did share my theory on sheep intelligence with
them. They seemed not to care.
I finished chores and started to clean the
back of my pickup off. We had been fixing fence the day before and I needed to
run to town and in the name of public safety I decided to remove all the fencing
supplies off my truck. At that very moment, the one dark little cloud above me
decided to expend one clap of thunder. Killer, the cow dog, who is deathly
scared of thunder sought protection right behind my knees and when I backed up
I tripped over him falling into the mud.
As I picked myself up I grumbled about animals and their
lack of intellectual capacity. I cast a glance down at the barn and the sheep
pens. The lamb that I had rescued was now reaching farther through the enlarged
hole in the fence munching on some choice green weeds. Maybe he wasn’t as dumb
as I had thought. At the same moment, all fifteen of the ewes put their heads
back down in the bunk simultaneously and I swear I could hear a faint
snickering. There I stood, running late in wet muddy jeans. I guess it is a
good thing we humans are superior in our intelligence.
I had sheep when I was a kid, have to agree with you on their mental capacity.I Speak Cow
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