Zelda was the most challenging sheep ever for us. She knocked me down more than once, trampled Red, led two breakouts off of the farm and down a busy highway, knocked off farriers and vets. She has mellowed. She seems to defer a bit to the two wethers,  Liam and Pumpkin, she never messes with Red (or he with her) and she often comes up to me or Maria hoping for a treat of some kind or even a scratch behind the ears, something she would never  have permitted.

She lost  her lamb last summer, and that may have softened her spirits. Or maybe the good life of being a sheep for Maria, lots of good hay and attention. She even came up to me and posed for this photo, and I didn’t get knocked on my butt.

Her epic breakout is still talked about by our neighbors, she busted through a  hot five-wire fence and lured the other sheep onto a highway and took off for a half-mile. Red and I gave chase, he got there first, turned them around and escorted them back and forth across the road – many honking horns – and back to the farm. On our farms, animals lead a pretty peaceful life, I like to think it was good care that mellowed Zelda. Maybe it was life, the great mellower of us all.