I live in a semi-rural area surrounded by vineyards and horses. The property I live on has two houses, the old rambling weatherboard house the girls live in, and the smaller but much newer brick house the cats and and I live in.
The girls look after rescued horses in the surrounding paddocks whereas I get all the freedom of the space without any of the responsibility.
The girls also have three ferrets, six dogs and a sheep they raised from a lamb called Gordon.
Gordon was raised with the dogs, came in every night and sleep with the dogs near the fire in winter and eats dog and cat kibble whenever he can get near it.
He also does an excellent job of keeping the girls' yard from needing mowing. Mine unfortunately was looking quite shabby as my gardener cannot visit any more.
So I had a chat to the girls and they asked if I would accept Gordon in to chew on my grass and I have such a think lush amount and, as it is coming into winter, there's not enough in their penned-in yard to keep him fully fed. I was happy so every few days the girls lead him out of his yard and into mine.
The first time they did, Abby was very wary and cautious of what this animal was and why was it in her yard .... she slunk down in the grass and slithered on her belly all around the sheep. Then ran back to me meowing querulously but wouldn't let me pick her up. She then slithered back around until she was right in front of Gordon and then leapt up about two foot in the air all paws a'waving doing the best Scrat impersonation I'd ever seen.
The girls and I doubled over in laughter. Gordon didn't even pause in his chewing. I ran inside for my camera, but could only get one shot in before another car pulled up and Abby ran off.
So now Gordon visits regularly and the girls and I make sure the door to the sleep-out is wired open just enough the cats to get through but not Gordon. Turns out we were wrong. Also turns out Gordon gets lonely.
He doesn't like being over here by himself, especially when he can see the dogs have been let into the paddocks with the horses without him. So whenever I'm home Gordon wants to be inside and that would be fine if he didn't piddle and poo everywhere.
Trubs is not happy about him being inside, it makes her very nervous, so we're keeping Gordon outside now. I can stand watching his big sad lonely sheep eyes more easily than I can stand watching Trubs being nervous and worried.
So there's the story of Gordon and Abby :)
7 comments:
And while reading this the lyric "Me? I'm just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk" came out of the speakers.
Excellent storry, I can just imagine Abby trying to move Gordon on! ;-))
That's cute! Hugo does a pretty good Scrat imitation when he sneaks up on one of the dogs ;)
What a great story.. I can just picture Abby jumping in Gordon's face. I think I could borrow Gordon for a few days - the weather has not been overly conducive to me keeping my lawn mowed with my limited days off....
Cute. Abby will get used to Gordon, but I agree with keeping him out of the house. Sheep and goats don't seem to do their 'business' in just one spot like many animals do. Hard to train them out of messing on the floor. We hand raised 4 baby goats who could not be in the cold due to a muscle infection that we were treating them for. As soon as one stopped moving you ran over and held a bucket under them, LOL.
The first time Gordon piddled in the house it was while he was walking, he piddled the entire length of my hall. Then the cats started peeing on top of it while I was filling the mop bucket - it was a stinky mess til I managed to get it cleaned up. The second time was in one spot thankfully.
Great story. We hand raised all our sheep in the days when we had them. They were great. Each had a name and they would come when called. The best day was when one of our neighbours sheep got in among them. He came round to collect it and insisted that he could get it in faster than me by using his sheep dog.
Dog ran out towards the sheep; farmer called instructions. Sheep took one look at dog and the biggest one charged him and head butted him through the air. Dog ran whimpering back to very red faced farmer. Guess who got the sheep in?
We kept them for their natural lives and the eldest was nearly 18 when she finally died
Great story from Mel, and great stories from Kay and Sisu, too!
I love sheep, but that's what they are, after all, won't be able to potty train them, LOL. Would be nice if Gordon wasn't a single sheep, but yards only feed so much sheep. I can see where they're great lawnmowers though. As it's summer starting here you hear the bloody lawnmowers again all over the place. I hate that noise, but they're proper men's toys. I prefer the Flymo and we would have one if the one responsible for our grass (can't call it a lawn, it's more of a wildflower meadow) wouldn't have gone for such a one. Since he's chosen the motored one he can keep mowing himself. Wouldn't touch it!
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