Little Scheherazade passes ‘Sheep Etiquette 101’

Scheherazade minutes old

Scheherazade was our first born lamb that year; our second lambing year. After the recommended three days in the lambing jug, we let them out to join the rest of the ewes in the big stall. Much to our surprise, and I dare say horror. Her mother Esmeralda was immediately challenged by several of the other pregnant ewes. In fact their attack was quite ferocious. We were appalled! We rushed in to snatch up Scheherazade before she could get trampled in the mayhem.

Scheherazade & Esmeralda

We called a more experienced shepherd to ask if we should separate mother and daughter from the offending group. She replied emphatically “Absolutely not! They just have to re-establish their pecking order. In fact the longer the sequestration the fiercer the challenge! Leave them alone, and they will work it out.”

It was with great trepidation that we left them for the night. We even wondered if little Scheherazade would be traumatized by witnessing such violence at her tender age.

The next day when we returned, things were much calmer. Scheherazade was in a corner practicing hopping and spronging. The pregnant ewes were scattered around the stall, reclining and chewing their cuds. I just happened to be looking her way, when she stopped her hopping and was looking around for something else to do.

She approached Miss Marple, who was reclining and contentedly chewing her cud. Scheherazade tipped her head to Miss Marple in a manner that I recognized from seeing the ram lambs approach each other and signal an invitation for their play combat. Miss Marple clearly was not interested, as she ignored her and continued to chew her cud. So Scheherazade passed her by and tip toed up to Natasha and politely cocked hear head again. Natasha was not interested either, so she timidly proceeded up the line of ‘mothers in waiting’ asking each: “Want to joust ? “,”Want to joust ? “ No one was interested until she got to the last mother, the youngest, Guenevere. She must have said, “Oh, OK,” because with out getting up, she gently tipped her head down so that she and Scheherazade bumped foreheads with a very dainty ‘boink’. At which Scheherazade, mission completed, gleefully bounded over to her mother, clearly immensely pleased with herself. She had passed the test and had been officially accepted into the ‘Sheep Club.’

Scheherazade one day old

The next day when we came in, Scheherazade was dashing around from mother to mother in an absolute flurry of delight. With out even asking, she was butting each mother, then scampering to the next, then the next: Boing! Boink! Bam! ... Boing! Boink! Bam! I’m sure the ewes were quite relieved when the next lambs came along, and little Miss Scheherazade had some playmates of her own age.

We had been worried that having been caught up in the mayhem of the battling moms, Scheherazade might have been in danger of being dramatized. Meanwhile, she had been observing it all and thinking to herself, “So this is what sheep do. Well I’m a sheep, so I need to learn how to do it too.”

Scheherazade all grown up with twins