Twins are born...

Mattie called me at work at 3:00 to say he was walking on to the field and could see a black ewe with a newborn. I packed up in record time and started home. The mom, a first timer, was fretting over the long string of afterbirth coming out the back of her, and was spinning around trying to undo it. A tiny black lamb was finding its legs next to her. Matt told me he had been trying to get the ewe to follow him into the lean-to with no success. He went to get a bucket of grain. I scooped up the little one and enjoyed a moment of bliss. When I hold a healthy newborn lamb everything is right with the world and I experience a kind of euphoria. An understanding of why I do this washes over me and I am renewed. The little wet nose nuzzled my face and I returned the gesture. I ran my hands over the rough wool and fingered the tiny hoofs. I was just coming back to earth when a tiny cry came on the breeze. What was this? Another lamb? Where? Apparently mom had dropped a lamb back in the field. If a hard wind was blowing I would never have heard it. I called to Matt that there was another one and he ran to search. There it was, a little white ram lamb in the bushes by the stream! He brought it to me and I did my backwards crouching tip-toe to the lean-to, holding the lambs where mom could eyeball them. She followed in an awkward way, circling behind me, baaing like crazy, as if to stay, "What are you doing with my lambs?" We eventually got them into the lean-to, or "jug" as we call it in sheep linger. I looked behind me, and to my horror, a huge vulture swooped down and picked up the afterbirth which was left behind in the field. My first thought was of the little ram lamb, almost left behind. Would he have been vulture dinner? I went back to my mothering chores...