Buddy Has a Friend

Made my way to work feeling guilty leaving the Farm, with so many babies and pregnant moms on deck. Matt had a job interview in Norwich and had left before me. The icy winter wonderland glistening in the rising sun helped me forget my worries and I actually arrived at work on time. It's Regents week and I was on proctoring duty in the PM. A meeting after work took an hour and a half, putting me home much later than usual. Matt was hanging on by a thread. He had one two year old black ewe give birth to a beautiful, hefty black ewe lamb - "Serena." She was skittish but he got her jugged up and milked out. I fixed dinner while he started chores. Afterwards I went out to check on all the newborns and moms and do bunnies, hay, water in all the jugs, etc. I walked to the East End of the barn and there he was, a tiny white lamb, curled up against the cold blowing in the open door, licked off but no mother in sight. The sheep were all eating so I looked around for a cord hanging from a rear end. There she was, my new purebred BFL ewe, purchased from Kathy Davidson in Pa. I snatched up the baby and wrapped him in my sweater. Teeny, tiny, thing, he was a ice cube. Matt helped me catch mom, but there was no room at the inn! All the lambing pens were full. We had to "process" lambs and moms (selenium shots, tail and scrotum bands, worming) in two pens to free them up for this pair and at least one for whatever comes in the night. In went Polly Purebred and her ice cube. I put a thick angora sweater on him and squeezed enough colostrum from mom to fill his belly. He could swallow but not much else. The thick collar held up his head, and the long sweater covered his whole back. Matt moved our one heat lamp to shine on him before he staggered off to bed. He will be up at 1 am to take over. I went about bunny and chicken feeding and kept an eye on the new lambsicle. I decided to take him in the house and give him some of the colostrum I saved from his mother after the first feeding. I held him on my lap and warmed his still translucent hoofs in my sweater. Fed Buddy, too, then put them both in the laundry basket. I can't put "Benny" back in the barn. It's wicked cold out there, and the wind is shaking the barn over my head. Just can't do it. Maybe we'll see about tomorrow, but for now, Buddy has a friend.