Coyote Girl

Just about three years ago, I went down to Geri's for a day of doggin'. When I got there, Geri told me her flock of sheep had come in from their walk about graze and she was missing a lamb.  A few hours later, we looked out and saw the most pitiful sight....the missing lamb was attempting to come home.  Somehow, she had survived a terrible coyote attack....left ear hanging, bite marks in a few places, and most radical....huge deep gashes on both sides between her stomach and her flank all the way up to her spine.  A small 2 inch flap of skin could be lifted to see her spinal cord.  Besides the ear flop, she was dragging a back leg.  Geri asked me to take her home, the range grazing life her sheep lived would not allow for the lamb to live long.  Having already had a few really bad experiences with free sheep....I almost said no.  However, my heart got in the way and I had an empty dog crate....what the heck. 

That is how Coyote Girl came to live with me.  With the help of a vet friend and a local goat milk producer, I nurtured the lamb who was about three weeks old.  She lived with the flock and I hand fed her 4 times a day.  With a lot of care she eventually started healing, the ear would droop only occasionally, and her back leg limp became less over time. Believe it or not, she ended up being a really great puppy starting sheep...calm and good in the round pen.  I was not going to breed her but she was infatuated with Hoosier the ram....so one day, I opened the gate and she started the journey to becoming a mom.

Yesterday, with a little help from me, Coyote Girl gave birth to twins.

A little 10 pound girl and a little 11 pound boy.  They seem all legs and ears...and way bigger than the 8 pound coop/blue face lambs I have been having. 

It makes me think of that George Strait song...."I Saw God Today":
I've been to church
I've read the book
I know he's here
But I don't look
Near as often as I should
Yeah, I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I just slowed down to stop and stare
Opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today

Events like this bring me back to one thing I really love about the life I get to live.  Tiny miracles!  A small lamb that beat all odds and survived a coyote attack, to heal and go on to have twin lambs, and for me to be there to help her when she needed just a little more muscle to get the job done. 

I saw God today!

Seize the Day!