My First Sheep - "Baby Thunder"

Baby Thunder can hardly be called Baby anymore. What a fine mature gentleman he is today. I found him at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival seven years ago. He was in a cage with another ewe lamb who was going home with a little girl. She had won the lamb in an essay writing contest. The little ram lamb was yelling his head off. Did he eyeball me and know I was the one? I picked him up and felt his heart pounding against my chest. I was smitten at once. Hope Yankey, his owner, told me this lamb was a purebred Coopworth and a triplet. She thought three were too much for the mother and decided to sell this one. She required that he be wethered, and wouldn't let him go without a band on him. That was okay with me, as long as she did it. I had three angora goats at home, and wasn't planning on getting into sheep breeding. Don't know how I came up with the name Baby Thunder but it was perfect. I carried him all around the festival, so proud of my little sheep. It was hot and I had packages. A nice young man, who said he was in the Army, saw me struggling across the field and offered to help carry my lamb to the truck. Thunder rode home in my red Ford Ranger, in the little seat behind me. He was the perfect passenger. When I got home, Matt started walking toward the truck and heard a "baaaaaaaaahhh" loud and clear. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Oh, Nooooooooo!" We had our first sheep!

Baby Thunder fit in perfectly. He loved his bottle and got along great with the dogs and goats. He got very excited when he saw the red truck coming up the lane. It meant someone was coming home to feed him! Thunder always was a very social sheep. When people came to visit he would "pogo" around, jumping straight up in the air all around them. As he grew bigger and heavier and stopped the cute lamb behavior, he would walk up to people to say hello and stand next to them, just hanging out. Thunder became well known in the neighborhood, as he liked to go visiting. Now, we were renting a cottage on a 68 acre piece of land, so visiting required quite a hike. Thunder even tried visiting the evil land-lady, who was not amused. She opened her front door and there was a little sheep there, smiling and friendly. If she had not shut the door in his face, he would have come right in and looked around for something to eat! Now I am the land-lady, and he is always welcome.