We're home!

Mopple is absolutely gorgeous: plump, playful and arguably world’s cutest lamb. I’m so grateful to Vanessa for letting me have him. He’s going to make a wonderful project sheep!

We’ve completed our first bottle feeding session and all in all it went pretty well. Lambs, especially lambs that nursed their dams for awhile, have absolutely no inclination to accept a nipple, so the first few feedings can be pretty much touch and go. With considerable help Mopple did nurse, though we all ended up with milk splattered here and there. We use a Pritchard nipple on a pop bottle and feed raw goat milk from our Nubian does, Latifah and Bon Bon. For the first ten days or so, since Mopple is a big, strong lamb, I’ll feed him every three hours through the day and every four hours at night. In a day or two he’ll be nursing like a pro.

He is, however, an extremely vocal guy, much more so than any of the Miniature Cheviot bottle lambs we’ve raised. Our big old Airedale, Hooligan, “protects” all the babies that come in our house; right now he’s lying on the couch with a pained expression on his face that clearly says, “Why doesn’t he shut up!” He will, but not until he gets over leaving his mom and sisters.

Vanessa did something really cool: she worked Delilah’s shedding fleece off of her back (Dorpers and Katahdins naturally shed their scant winter “wool” in a sheet that resembles an old felt saddle pad) and sent it home with us. This gives Mopple something to cuddle up to that smells like his dam.

I hoped to have cute outdoor pictures to post with this installment but it rained most of the day. These two not-so-great pictures were taken here in the living room. In one, John is scratching Mopple’s back—he seems to enjoy that a lot!

Tomorrow I’ll talk about my plans for Mopple, so please stay tuned!