We long ago surrendered our porch to dogs, cats and chickens, our imperious and spoiled hens love the chair, the mull the world from it – is grass not good enough for them? I have to say I love photographing them there.
Jake and Deb are powerfully connected, she has been touching heads with him, one poignant scene after another, perhaps out of instinct, perhaps out of encouragement. The bottle-fed milk, the penicillin and the vitamin booster have had some affect. Jake is standing up a bit, he eliminated, he called out to his mother, he took the milk from the bottle. All good signs. He still looks wobbly, but we both think he has improved. Sick lambs or ewes rarely get better.
But I am hopeful, these two are special, we would hate to lose one of them. For those many people presuming to offer advice from their computer screens, we are doing what the vets tell us to do when a lamb gets sick. There are limits on a farm to what we can do and should do – these are not pets, we cannot call a vet every time an animal limps or gets sick here, nor is it appropriate. We are doing all of the things vets always tell us to do, and what our own experience has taught us to do. These are our decisions to make not anyone else’s. We will make them.
We are caring for Jake well,and will continue to make our own decisions about him and share them with you. I have no interest in hearing what God is telling you Jake needs. God has other stuff to do.
As always, I bring to you the real world of real animals, not a fantasy. I thank those many good people whose good thoughts and feelings are felt here and appreciated.
I was brought nearly to tears by this image, Simon is an amazing animal, he is intuitive and he communicates with us and with life in the most powerful of ways, perhaps because of his own experience as an animal who truly suffered cruelty. Maria is holding the stricken Jake here, and Simon came over and pressed his head to the both of them, in the way of donkeys. He seems to understand what is happening, he kept touching his nose to Jake in the gentlest way. I am fortunate to be able to capture the real communication that goes on in this world of ours. I am not hopeful for Jake, but have not given up hope.
We went out into the pasture this morning to find Jake, one of Ma’s twins, the white lambs, was lying in the pasture, stricken and barely alive. Maria and I held Jake, and I had to photograph the emotion I saw, I had to capture it. The donkeys were astonishingly protective of him and gathered around him, Simon kept trying to get him up.
Ma abandoned him and walked away for awhile. Prey animals protect themselves from predators by abandoning the sick and weak in their flock. It is often a sign an animal is dying.
Then I changed gears in my head and went to work. We gave Jake a vitamin booster, a penicillin shot, he took some lamb’s milk from a warmed-up bottle. He opened his eyes briefly, then walked around a bit, he seems disoriented, I believe he ate something that poisoned him or caught some kind of a fever. He collapsed in a corner, we will give him more milk if we can, make him as comfortable as we can.
I will share the process with you as always, it is important to share the real lives of real animals before we forget what they are like. The horses have awakened me to the importance of this, if the people in New York understood what the real lives of animals are like, in nature and the natural world, the horses and the people who care for them would not be in peril.
We are not calling the vet, we will do what we can, and let nature take it’s course. Maria was strong about it, emotional but not stricken herself. She has come to understand that animals do not live in a no-kill world, they do not live in paradise. More painful for me, perhaps, I am so drawn to these two, they seem so special and spiritual to me. I hope Jake pulls through.
