We got a call at midnight from my neighbor Adam who said there a bunch of sheep up the hill in his front yard, munching on his grass. I’ve never had animals break out of a  fence in my whole time on the farm and Maria and I grabbed Red, got dressed and rushed up the hill. There were the old sheep, in a Last Hurrah perhaps, grazing at the top of the hill in the dark. I got Red out of the far and we devised a plan for surrounding them and bringing them into the big pasture, but before we could move, they were gone. Adam saw them rushing back under a part of the fence that was intact, but the dirt under part of the fence had eroded and there was enough space for sheep to crawl in and out. The old geezers got to some good grass.

Red got in there, dug them out and brought them back to the lower pasture in the dark. We were much impressed. We closed the gate and locked them in there. This morning, Maria and I went up to put rocks under the fence and block it, and the old sheep were up there waiting for us, about to break through again. Then we saw the Maria’s three black sheep were limping, one discharging from the nose. We got out the antibiotics, got Red out there again and got them into the barn, gave them some shots. It was too dark to get a video of the old sheep breakout, but I got some shots of Red rounding them up this morning, and also of his skill at getting Maria’s sheep into the barn and holding them in place. Maria has evolved quite a bit in the past year or so, and she is a born farmer,  at home wielding a needle, rebuilding stone fences, wrestling with sheep.

Red continues to astound us with his energy, intuitive skill and grasp of tasks. We sure appreciated him last night and this morning. Come and see.