Of all the lamb excuses...

We've all done it, right? We've been invited to do something or go somewhere, and we don't really want to go, so we make up some silly excuse to get out of it. No harm, no foul, nobody's feelings get hurt.

Well last Friday I called up Spring to see if I could take her out to lunch for her birthday. I couldn't get her at home or on her cell, so I left a message. A few minutes later, I got a text messaging asking, "What's up?"

When I responded, letting her know what I had in mind, she replied that she would love to, but the only way she could do lunch was if I brought it to her because she couldn't leave the house. Finally, we caught up with each other long enough to verbally communicate what was going on.

As it turns out, one of Spring's sheep had given birth to triplets Monday night. Of the two boys and one girl, the Momma really only wanted to take care of one, so the other two were getting shoved aside. One was bad enough that it had to be brought into the house to get warmed up and so they could attempt bottle feeding.

City girl that I am, this was something I just had to see, so I stopped at the Bread Company (where else would I go?), picked up soup and salads, and headed up the highway to Spring's house. When I got there, sweet Sadie greeted me at the door with lots of excitement, jumping up on me and passing out licks.

We had lunch and visited for a bit and then it was time to go see this little miracle of miracles.


I grew up in the suburbs, but I've been to Grant's Farm and fed the goats, ridden horses, seen cows up close and personal, but never before had I seen a less-than-a-week-old lamb. My goodness, how adorable he was! Little Cisco looked like a stuffed animal all curled up in his wicker laundry basket. He was laying on a heating pad in front of a space heater to try and get warm and didn't respond to us much when we stroked him or said his name. Even Sadie tried to help by licking the top of his head and nuzzling his ears.

It was feeding time for the little lamby-pie, so Spring went and heated up a special formula and put it in a small glass Coke bottle with a rubber nipple. She showed me how to hold it and get Cisco interested. He was interested all right! That little guy almost polished off the whole bottle in no time, and once he did, it was amazing how fast he got energized!

Before long, there was no keeping him in the basket or even in a big cardboard box. Instead, he followed me around the dining room (the song "Mary had a little lamb" kept going through my head the whole time) and exploring the house and the cat. His tiny hooves made the cutest little clopping sound on the hardwood floor! It was really something to see and I just couldn't stop taking pictures of the little guy. He finally settle down after quite a bit of wandering, and just nodded off in a corner of the room.

What a fun day it was for me as I got to make friends with Cisco!