Maria, Red and I went to the small village of Shushan this morning to rescue Rosemary – a beautiful white Romney –  and bring her home to the farm to join Izzy, another Romney. The owner of the two ewes  lost her home and our friends Donna and Treasure took them and two other sheep in and have been looking for homes for them.

Rosemary was well fed but her wool was in dreadful condition, about 30 pounds of feces and mud were hanging off of her, totally obscuring her very beautiful wool. When we arrived Treasure and Donna had begun sharing Rosemary – we named her after a good friend – themselves. Maria joined in to help.

First, Red had to round up Rosemary and the other Romneys, all big and powerful sheep who had never been herded before. Red was heroic, he and I went out into the field and began a 45-minute struggle. Red was butted, kicked, run over before he finally nipped one of his tormentors on the nose and ended the rebellion.

He was steady, brave, appropriate and unrelenting. He never wavered, yelped or backed off, even as Maria worried we should call off his herding. The sheep ran back and forth to their barn, their safe spot and Red dug them out again and again and drove them up to the top of the hill, where a small white fence had been set up.

Donna, Maria and Treasure and a helper got a rope on Rosemary and we all wrestled her to the ground and lay on her while Treasure and Maria each took different ends and began hand-shearing, a strenuous and very physical process. We couldn’t get a shearer in time, and the Donna couldn’t bear to send her off with feces-swollen wool hanging off her body.

Maria, who had never sheared a sheep before, jumped right in, holding the exhausted ewe down and using scissors and an electric shear to trim off the tool – it had probably been a couple of  years since she had been shorn. Every now and then she struggled to get up and it was a wrestling match, with Red dodging goats and other worried Romneys. I’ve never been prouder of Red or seen him do more impressive work, and we could never have gotten hold of Rosemary and sheared her without him. Got to get him a sirloin burger.

I came up with a good plan for Red – pressure the sheep, turn the ram around and get them moving up the hill. Some false starts, some changes in direction, but Red came close, he drew a bit of blood once, on the ram’s nose after he ran over Red. No more serious resistance. He was restrained and efficient.

Sometimes I take for granted just what an amazing working dog he is. I am equally impressed with my wife, who just seems to grow stronger and more confident and adventurous by the hour. We are a good team, all of us. It feels good to have gotten Rosemary cleaned up a bit and her, we took some awful stuff off of her, I’m not sure how she was able to get around or eliminate.

When we were done shearing,  we all lifted and pushed Rosemary into Donna’s Subaru and got her to the farm, where she is getting acclimated to our flock. A grueling but exhilarating experience for us – her too –  and we will get her shorn again in October, along with the others. We’ll check  her tomorrow, I think she’s okay for now.

We are glad she is here, and Izzy two. Both are gorgeous and very grounded ewes with amazing wool for Maria to get spin. Heaving a bit of a beefier flock will be good for Red. Rosemary was quick to ignore Fate and keep a close eye on Red. I was sorry to see a sheep in that condition, we are grateful to Donna and Treasure for saving her and getting her to us.