Sheep Gal

Our Goat was Kidnapped

If Gypsy, our dear Angora doe, could speak she'd have a heck of a tale to tell about the last 72 hours.

First of all, Gyspy is okay.  She was returned to the farm yesterday by two of the three people who had stolen her from our farm on Thursday night.

Now, let me back up a bit.

I had to be in Connecticut all day on Friday. Mid morning I received a call from my husband Mike. He and our farm assistant, discovered upon arriving for morning chores, our flock was minus one goat. Gypsy was no where to be found.

There was a trail of goat hoof prints outside the fenced paddock accompanied by several sets of human boot prints (not Mike's, not our farm hands'  and definitely not mine) that followed the goat prints around the north side of the barn, over the stone wall and down through the ravine. The tracks continued on the opposite side of the road, heading down toward the dairy barn. A thorough search revealed no other signs of goat anywhere on the farm.

I had several appointments to keep in Connecticut that day, so Mike kept me posted via cell. The authorities were alerted. Mike contacted our security company to download all the video from our barn security surveillance cameras that record everything that happens near our barns and paddocks. I got home just before dark Friday night and spent the last minutes of daylight scouting for goat prints, droppings. I hollered "GYPSAAAAY"  down into the dell, hoping to hear her reply.

Got an early start on Saturday morning - I was slated to be vending yarn and signing books at the Wayland Winter Farmers' Market Fiber Day from 10 to 2 which meant I had to leave the farm by 6:30 a.m. Before I left, I spent half an hour down at the farm again, searching for any fresh goat prints and calling for Gypsy.

It took hours for the security company to sift through the video.

But Saturday morning, long after I was on my way to the Farmers' Market,  Mike heard from  the surveillance company that there was indeed footage of Gypsy being chased, cornered and dragged away by three men on Thursday night. When Mike eventually saw the images himself,  it quite literally made him sick. Who were these people? What were they planning to do with our goat?

I was grateful to be so busy at the Wayland Farmers' Market, while all of this was being sorted out back home. I kept waiting for a text or call from Mike. The longer I waited, the tighter the knot in my stomach became. At one point a customer asked me a question I'm often asked  - how many and what kinds of animals do you have? I began ratttling off my automatic response: 60 sheep, 3 llamas, 3 miniature donkeys, and 1 goat - but when I got to the goat part, the words stuck in my throat, because I was feeling nearly certain at that point that I would not see my goat again.

By bizarre coincidence, a few local individuals had noted some interesting recent FaceBook activity  - a few local guys posted pictures of themselves posing with beer and a goat. The dots were quickly connected and the goat purloiners identified.

After sharing the videos and the discovery of the incriminating FB post with the authorities, they contacted the perpetrators. Mike received a call from the local police - that our goat would be returned to the farm within the hour. Mike headed straight to the barn.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, a truck rolled up at the farm with Gypsy tethered in the back. Apparently after the intervention of the authorities, two of the three men who were responsible her disappearance decided it would be a very good idea to return her to the farm.

I got home late, exhausted last night after a very busy day at the farmers market. It was dark, snowing and I wasn't dressed in barn clothes. But the barn was my first stop, to bring Gypsy a slice of apple I'd saved to share with her. You can see her apprehension in the pic I took, above. She wouldn't approach me for her treat, so I left it for her in the feed bunk. Understandable behavior on her part, really, given her experience.

I will have the vet out tomorrow to make sure she is healthy, unharmed and has not been abused in any way.

Mike and I slept well last night, knowing she was home. We're still processing the weirdness of it all - and deciding where we go from here.

We have exactly zero tolerance for mistreatment of animals. Even if there was no malicious intent, (and it's  still unclear to us - what would have been her fate had she not been tracked down so quickly?) how could anyone mishandle an animal, just for sport? I just don't get it.

Gypsy's is a lucky goat - to be back in her barn, ruling the roost, bossing the ewes about and paling around with the donkeys. There's a chapter in my book, Adventures in Yarn Farming called "Goats are born looking for trouble."

In this case, trouble came looking the goat.

 

This is about Sheep Shares

There's still time to join us for 2014!

Sheep Shares is my farm's yarn and fiber CSA. It's a way for you, wherever you are, whatever you do, to participate in the life of a working sheep farm - and to receive in the course of a year two shares of either yarn or spinning fiber produced from the wool of my flock, delivered neatly to your doorstep. You need never set foot in the hayloft, skirt a fleece, nor lift a shovel.

If you sign up, I promise the sheep and I will take care of the rest.

I'm writing because there are only a handful of openings left for Sheep Shares 2014. If you have been on the fence, now is the time to act.

You can find all the details here on my website.

Thanks for reading!

above photos: Cormo Silk Alpaca yarn (fall yarn share for 2014)

Cormo Silk Alpaca roving (fall fiber share for 2014)

Passages

This is Cocoa, the oldest, dearest member of my flock. Cocoa is one of the pair of my very first sheep. My flock started with her. Cocoa will be 17 in March which is very old for a sheep. She's doing incredibly well, given her advanced age.

I took this pic this morning after we fed her and bedded her pen. She and three other senior ewes live in our "Assisted Living" Barn. They get individual pans of grain and mushy alfalfa cubes soaked in warm water every morning. Winter is especially hard on old sheep. We do what we can to help them get by.

I received some sad news just after Christmas. "Chocoloate Chip" who was Cocoa's very first lamb, born 16 years ago, died the day after Christmas. Chip had been living at my sister's house, along with her menagerie of other sheep and goats. Kathy found him in the snow that morning. Like Cocoa, he had been receiving preferential treatment, although declining. And like Cocoa, he lived a long and contented life.

It's difficult seeing out the senior members of our flock. Chip's passing makes me grateful for every day Cocoa is still on her feet at the gate to greet us when we enter the barn. Although she is stiff-gaited and her eyes are clouding over, she's wily, strong and independent.

We had lost another old timer back in June. I was so sad at the time, I'm sorry, I just didn't feel like blogging about it. It was Pansy, a 13 year old Cormo ewe who was the last of our original Cormo matriarchs. She lived long enough to be present for a Sheep Shares gathering in June (if you attended that event, you may remember the frail ewe in the Assisted Living Barn). Pansy passed away the very next day.

Our flock has a higher than average number of old timers - ewes, mostly, who have more than earned their keep over the years. Not all of them are as personable as Cocoa, Chip or Pansy, but their presence is part of the spirit of this place and they are dear friends. Let's hope winter will lighten up for the sake of the old timers.

* note - post edited to fix grammatical error, yikes. 

Wild and Windy

The farm's survived the wild and snowy night. By mid morning today we had patches of blue sky and everyone came outside to stand in the sun. But warmth - not so much. That didn't stop me from taking a break mid chores to show the sheep how to make snow angels They were absolutely mystified, especially Sol, the llama - who doesn't approve of any changes in routine.

For a brutally windy night, the snow accumulation here wasn't nearly as much as we had expected - maybe a foot. It's hard to say, since we have so much drifting. We had stocked all the barns last night with extra hay and water, anticipating that it might be hard to get to the farm today. But it wasn't bad. Once the driveway was cleared, it was smooth sailing down to the barns. They hade been plowed out by the time we got there.

I'm heading back down now for evening chores. Will  button up the buildings for the night and toss some corn to the sheep for calories.

Hope you're weathering this bout of winter in safety and warmth.