Farm Friday, September 23rd, 2020
Tribute to our good sheep, Lilly
I did not expect to have to write another tribute post so soon. It has been just over two weeks since our beloved llama, Precious, passed. I was gone on our school trip and came home on Tuesday to find one of our sheep in her last days too.
Lilly came to our farm thirteen years ago and joined our flock of shetland sheep. She almost didn’t make it. On the day of her arrival, we backed the trailer up to the barn and pushed the two sheep, Lilly and Big Brown, out into the barn. Lilly had other ideas and ran out into the yard.
In general, sheep want to stay with their flock. But on the first day of her life on our farm, Lilly had not yet bonded with our other sheep nor our place. So Lilly just ran. She went up to the road and we were worried she would be hit by a truck. Then she ran down the road and disappeared into the corn.
We were distressed and worried she would get eaten by a predator or die of exposure. Our friend Nancy with the trailer had the idea that we could put Big Brown back into the trailer and park it on the road by the corn. Big Brown’s baa-ing brought Lilly out of the corn and she was reunited with her friend from her other farm. Shwew!
For years, Lilly was just one of the flock. As the shetland sheep we had over the years passed on one by one, Lilly was the last of her generation. Then three years ago she stopped being able to stand up and walk. We had Dr. Nick come and he thought it could be arthritis or an injury, but otherwise Lilly was healthy. It was our choice to give Lilly medicine daily for the pain and let her live out her life in a “hospice pen.”
We know this is not a choice that most farms would make. We are a Montessori school farm and our sheep are more like pets than farm animals. We have never eaten one of our sheep. We have them for wool for projects and for us to share the joy of caring for sheep with the children. There is a lot of joy. They love to be scratched and have their ears petted. There is also joy in cleaning out the pens and giving the sheep a fresh clean place to live. It is the joy of seeing animals thrive.
In her hospice pen, Lilly transformed from a skittish sheep who hid behind Precious when people came to visit into a sheep fully committed to receiving love from humans. She would demand scratches and plop her head into the laps of children. She was an enthusiastic eater, but she vexed many adolescents by spitting out her medicine.
There were often children who did not necessarily get along with all the other children, but would be drawn to giving Lilly love. We would be cleaning out the pen, and a child would disappear from the wheelbarrow job and we would find them snuggled up with Lilly.
People give sheep a bad rap. They think of sheep as unintelligent, fearful, and blindly following the leader. What I know is that sheep are smart in their own ways.
Sheep have good memories. Studies have found that sheep can recognize the faces of other sheep five years later. We have seen Lilly bond with specific children and I know she knew me by voice and sight. Lilly was especially bonded with Precious, our llama. Any time we would lock Precious out of the barn to clean the pen, Lilly would baa incessantly until Precious was brought back. In the last days of Precious’ life, we set it up for Precious to sit where Lilly could see her.
Sheep have emotional connections to people and other animals. The week that Precious died, we noticed blood in Lilly’s mouth. We thought it was an impacted tooth or something like that. But soon it revealed itself to be a cancerous growth, which exploded and within a week took over the whole left side of her mouth. Dr. Nick said there was nothing to be done, and although Lilly still had a strong spirit, she couldn’t take in food and looked to be in pain, so we made the decision to end her life.
It seems like a coincidence that Lilly held on in her hospice for three years and then the same week that Precious died, her body developed a fast-growing tumor. My guess is that she was sensitive to the loss of her dear friend and her body manifested that loss.
Thank you Lilly for being such a good sheep.
