Buffy and the BucketTerri tell the tale of the Headless Ewe
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Buffy, dear Buffy,
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Buffy of mine .....
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Early Monday morning we received a phone call from Heather. She told me
that one of the sheep had something stuck on their heads and was
freaking out all the other sheep. I immediately called Roy and told him
we had a sheep emergency. Since we had the morning off I had spent it
reading and drinking a leisurely cup of coffee. Roy on the other hand
values his extra sleep and so he was completely asleep when I called
him. Instantly he was up and moving. He rapidly donned his mud boots
since they take less time than tying shoes. Before he was even awake he
was leaving the gate and heading toward the sheep pen.
Amazed at how quickly he could get out the door I meekly followed behind
him. When we got down to Heather’s she was over near the pens watching
the spectacle that was a normally docile flock of sheep. The entire
flock of adults and babies was running from one side of the pen to the
other. Terror was clearly the motivator and they weren’t going to stop
for anything until the source of their terror was removed.
As we watched we could see that one ewe had somehow managed to
stick her entire head inside of a planting bucket. With the bucket
firmly on her head, she panicked and tried to get it off. Shaking
her head repeatedly she ran for the flock. She could
still hear, and what she heard was the flock fleeing. Since her vision was
impaired naturally she had to use her sense of hearing. So she
would stop, listen for a moment and then move in the direction of
the rest of the flock - who would then spook and run because they were being chased by that oh-so-scary "Headless Ewe".
It was the most hilarious thing to watch. Here was the bucket headed
sheep stopping and turning from side to side to listen and the rest of
the flock was trying to escape it. Finally Roy and I moved into action
and entered the pen. The flock moved behind us being certain we, as two
of their many humans, would save the day.
Roy moved a bit faster and he reached one side of the pen just behind
the bucket headed ewe. I took one good look at her body and my heart sunk. I knew it had to be my Buffy in there.
Even as sure as I was that it was Buffy I couldn’t help but hope that I
was wrong. Meanwhile "bucket head" was trying to find a way out of her dilemma, and Roy was trying to catch her before she hurt herself.
She heard the flock in the opposite direction and wanted to move that
way, but she had managed to get stuck in a corner of the pen.
She was slamming into the fence first on one side and then
on the other.
Terri commiserates with Buffy after her ordeal
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Roy advanced quickly and before the ewe knew what was
happening Roy lifted the bucket from her to reveal my little Buffy.
Embarrassed now she slunk over to the rest of the flock and put her head
down. The rest of the sheep were sniffing her and probably asking her
how she could have been so silly as to get her head in the bucket in the
first place.
All I could do was laugh for a few moments. It was hysterical to watch
her trying to get out of the bucket and yet in the middle of the
laughter I would think “oh that poor baby I hope she can breathe.” But
it was still funny and I would end up laughing again. Once it was all
over and she was free of her bucket I could only go over to her and
scratch her face and play with her ears while telling her how much she
was loved and that she was alright for having made the mistake. After
all we all have moments when we do silly things in our lives so why not
the sheep?
Still, she did look rather ...... sheepish :-)
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