01 Jan 2011
Back to Blogging

Well, this gap has been the largest since I started blogging - almost 2 months with no posting. Lots of reasons for this, but mostly I've just been busy. Very busy.

The lack of an aggregator hasn't helped either - the whole of 2010 was slow without the ability to rapidly post news items from my aggregator. I lost that when I lost the home Suse server.

Then there's been Miniel - she's still alive, and getting (marginally) better every day. Together with our vet, we deduced that her base problem was probably meningeal worms. It's been quite a trial - emotional ups and downs galore. Saving this lamb has become an obsession for both of us - she's caused quite a bit of introspection about why we do what we do.

We've not spent all that much money on her treatment - less than $200 total. Of course, at market she'd wouldn't be worth any more than $100 if she was completely healthy, so I suppose you could say we've over invested. But money hasn't been the main component of our investment - time has been. The only analogy that comes to mind is caring for a quadriplegic child. The neurological symptoms were terrible for the first month and a half, until the worms themselves died off. Now the problem is giving her physical therapy to rebuild her muscles so she can walk again. On good days she can get up on her knees - on bad days she can barely lift her head. But the improvements are there, slow but sure.

So why the obsession? I've kept a flock here for better than 8 years now, and in that time I've seen more than a few sick sheep. And it didn't take me long to develop a rule that I've followed in every other case - if an animal goes down and can't walk, it needs put down and out of it's misery quickly, because the next thing it's going to stop doing is eating and drinking. But Miniel did not - in fact, Miniel refuses to believe that she's down at all - she will continually try to stand and graze, even if she's too weak to do it. Sheep are not known as fighters - this one is a fighter par excellence - she simply refuses to lay down and die.

That kind of behavior demands respect - if we gave up and put her down for our convenience I would feel as though we'd broken our implicit oath with the flock, to care for and protect them in return for wool and meat. We'd be giving up on an animal that has not given up on us.

Our friend and neighbor Tim, also a shepherd, related a tale in which he and his wife spent a massive amount of time rehabilitating four ewes that had been injured in a hayfall in his barn. They had to do basically the same thing we're trying to do now - ovine physical therapy so the sheep could walk again. And it worked - he still has some of the ewes, and they've always been among his productive best.

So maybe we're not so weird after all.

You can read more of Miniel's tale on Dances With Ewes.

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