Spring Lambing At A Neighbors' Farm

I stopped in at the neighbors' barn one morning because I knew it was lambing season and they had a barn full of sheep:

I've heard of a "dog in a manger," but never before a "cat in a manger:"

Both the husband and wife were out in the barn when I arrived, and they were excited. I could tell a crisis was in progress:

The crisis was that two ewes had given birth to twins. One lamb had died already and this pair was struggling to survive. The lamb on the left was too weak to nurse, so their owner had milked out some colostrum from the ewe and fed it to the lamb. Its feeble cries were getting weaker and it didn't appear able to stand up. It was not expected to live:


 The rest of the sheep, however, were happy and healthy:

The sheep on this farm were mostly of mixed origins, largely Katahdin and Dorper, both primarily meat breeds:

The little pied lamb on the left was particularly appealing:

They'd just received their morning's hay and everyone was busy eating:

This is Mary, named for the nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." She was a bottle fed baby and has remained tame all her life. Mary is old now, and is the main attraction when folks come to see the sheep. She's always friendly:

This ewe with the golden face was the mother of the pied lamb a couple of photos up:

And of course there were barn cats:

The owner fetched some stale bread and we fed the ewes. Well, actually she fed the ewes because they weren't interested in taking any bread from me, a person they didn't know. I helped the husband move a big round hay bale, thanked the couple and took my leave: