Alice

We lost Alice to coyotes.

That is Alice in the foreground at left.  The picture was taken a few years ago, in the fall at my old place in Augusta.  The sheep in the back with the white nose is Alice's older sister, Ophelia (the ewes in that family line all had names from Shakespeare).


Many years ago now, I got a disease in my flock that sheep people know as "CL".   This was before there was a vaccine in the US for CL.  I unknowingly bought a ram that had it.  The disease can be slow to develop and slow to transmit, but it is contagious among sheep.  It is an easy disease to buy.   When I found it was in the flock, I stopped breeding and selling lambs.

I decided to keep a dozen or so sheep, just to have them around.   This was an un-economic thing to do, but I felt like I owed them something.   That flock gave me some very good lambs.  Some lambs had been sold to spinners in prior years, and some went to slaughter.

I've had only three sheep for quite a long time now.   Been putting old ones down from time to time over the years, as they got sick, injured, or tied up with arthritis.   The three remaining were descendants of the first two ewes I owned many years ago, Cordelia and Chloe.

The sheep in the flock were mostly Shetland/Finn, which are highly intelligent.  I know that isn't the common view of sheep, but it is true sometimes with relatively primitive breeds.  Each has his or her own personality.   Alice was special to me because she'd always been friendly and relatively calm.  She got spooky the last few years because I didn't spend enough time with her, but she always calmed down quickly when I did.   She was the first one to check out any offering from my hand, like a bit of apple.

Alice was descended from Cordelia, and was born the year that a Finn ewe I had named Lily gave birth to a bottle lamb named Chester.  Alice and Chester used to follow me around.   Chester followed me because I was his adopted mother.  Alice followed me because she wanted to.  I will miss Alice.

A word about coyotes -- this is the first trouble I've had with coyotes, over about a 15 year period.  Most coyotes don't bother sheep, and the American Sheep Institute recommends leaving coyotes alone that don't bother sheep.   Coyotes are territorial, and will keep other coyotes out of the area. I'm still going to leave the coyotes alone, but I'll bring the last two sheep in the barn at night.    This time of year, they like to graze at night when it is cool, but now that needs to stop.

The two remaining sheep are Arthur (Alice's twin) and Sparrow, and they've both been shy since they were born.     Arthur has never been aggressive, but he likes to keep to himself.  Sparrow wants to flit away, although she is descended from Chloe, who was rock-solid, calm and friendly. 

Alice always gave me the benefit of the doubt.  Being brown and a ewe, she looked like a delicate little white-tailed deer right after shearing in the spring.  So pretty.

Alice was a very good sheep.

Alice in Orono (at left).  Ophelia and Sparrow at right.