In the spring we, along with two other families ventured into a sheep experience.
There is a property across the highway from our house and we were given use of a pasture.
Our goal was to have "sustainable" animals. The sheep were chosen because they will give us wool, and perhaps babies, if we choose to go that route.
We chose a breed of sheep that is endangered, the Navajo Churro.
Navajo Churro were used by the ancient Navajo people for meat, rugs and such. When the white people started taking over the land that the Navajo people occupied, they decimated the sheep populations and interbred what was left with English breeds.
In the 1970's people started to breed sheep in an effort to bring the traits of the Navajo Churro, and therefore the Navajo Churro sheep back into existence. They are still an endangered breed.
We didn't know much about them but were eager to learn, and the girls, Sister Theckla, Roark (Barbara), Poeny (Mo), Tamar, Reese Witherspoon and her baby Jayda were going to teach us!
They are very wild by nature, but after they escaped and ran down the highway and we were barely able to catch them, we realized we needed to spend more time halter breaking them.
We humans suffered a few injuries, but before long we were to the point where we could catch them all.
Over time, the sheep began to get used to us-especially Barbara. She ran up to us in the field-leading the rest of the flock, and would even hang out and let us pet her.
A little over a week ago, on a Saturday afternoon, they got into the grain room. We didn't know how serious the situation was until almost 24 hours after they had gotten into the grain. Barbara and Reese were clearly the sickest and throughout the day, a friend who is also a small animal vet had them hooked up to IVs. We had no luck getting a hold of a large animal vet, but did extensive research while we continued to look. The research was not good. One site suggested immediate euthanization to harvest the meet, but death was likely within two to four days.
We finally reached a vet late in the afternoon on Sunday. We immediately began the treatment that he suggested, and by early evening, realizing we had done all that we could do, we left the sheep for the night.
Sadly, the next morning, we found that three had died. Reese, who had been the sickest, Mo, who had seemed pretty good until just before we left, and Tamar, who had not seemed the least bit sick.
Our vet came out early Monday, and while he would not declare the two that were still sick were out of the woods, he thought Barbara seemed to be doing better. He treated them and suggested that we get yogurt with live bacteria to repopulate their rumins. We were back to give the yogurt within the hour, and when we returned, it was clear that Barbara had taken a turn for the worse. We gave them the yogurt and called the vet. He was back almost immediately and gave her more medication. Sadly, she died within a couple of hours.
We still did not know if Sister was going to make it, but she seemed to hold her own during the rest of the day and when we put her in the pen Monday night we very guardedly declared that she seemed pretty good. The test would be on Tuesday when we released her back to pasture. If she ate, we knew she would be O.K.
We left the farm in shock over the loss of the four, but hopeful that we had saved two.
Tuesday morning, two sheep popped heads up to greet us and after their initial nervousness, they both dropped their heads to eat. We cheered and cried.
Had one survived, we knew our sheep adventure was over. With the survival of two, we had to make some hard decisions.
We lost the sheep a week ago, and while the shock has worn off, the questions about continuing and reestablishing out flock remain.
We ventured into the sheep experience hoping that it would teach our kids some life lessons and bring them closer to the earth and the animals that provide resources for us.
We did not expect to learn the life lessons that we all learned a week ago.
