You know those impossibly bucolic photos you sometimes see of places like Scotland, in which sheep are roaming free on the road while the cars wait patiently for the animals to get out the way? It's all so very old world and evocative of a simpler and slower lifestyle, isn't it?
Not at our house.
Yesterday afternoon I was upstairs with Cubby when I heard knocking on our front door. This signals a stranger, because everyone who knows us comes to the side door in the dining room and just walks right in, anyway. So I raced downstairs (well, as fast as I COULD race while hauling the Giant Infant) to find a woman at the door babbling somewhat incoherently about sheep in the road.
"Oh SHIT," I thought, but didn't say in deference to the nice woman standing there offering to try to round up our sheep for me. I thanked her and then turned around to yell up the stairs for The Shepherd.
It is times like these that make me devoutly thankful that The Shepherd works from home now.
A. ran out the door and down to the road, where he found Bonnie, the lead sheep that causes all the trouble, just wandering around in the road. Even for a sheep, which are not known for their stupendous intellects, this was a new low. I mean, there is no vegetation in the road. What in the hell enticed her into the road? Not to the side of the road, or across the road, but IN the road.
And of course, far from being one of those bucolic country lanes in Scotland, this particular road is a very busy state route with a lot of semi truck traffic. Thankfully, no trucks came along to turn Bonnie into road mutton. The cars that happened upon her just went around. And as soon as A. got down there and hupped to her, she came right up the driveway and followed him to the upper pasture.
She apparently just jumped right over the fence. To go stand in the road. Thereby cementing our reputation as The Crazy Sheep People.
At least we provide entertainment. Of a sort.
I feel your pain, only in a bovine kind of way. We had cattle out on July 5th, 1/2-mile away through the corn and soybeans. I hate getting those kinds of neighbor visits or phone calls.
ReplyDeleteOh, I see clearly that Bonnie was going on vacation. She had heard so many divine things about palm trees, historic sites, visiting family and it all sounded like a good time to her. And she had heard them called 'road trips', hence the sheep in the road scenario.
ReplyDeleteWere we live , we have stopped lots of times to help folks put their animals back in the fence. I know if it were me I would appreciate the help , instead of honking and going on. Beth
word verification 'derce'
It's mighty derce for the sheep to be making a road trip.
Wow, your story brought back some memories! I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with our second child when our 2 pygmy goats decided to go for a stroll on a major (55mph) road in front of the house we lived in at the time. I couldn't believe it when the man who knocked on my door just stood there and watched while I, a VERY obviously pregnant lady, ran out into the road barefoot to retrieve Snowflake and Prancer before they got smooshed. Chivalry was obviously not his thing!
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