Hark! Tis the Shepherd’s Voice I Hear!

 

Sometimes I feel like “Bring Them In” should be the official farm anthem. There are a lot of hymns about sheep, and I sometimes sing them to my flock when the mood strikes me. A whole song about retrieving sheep that have wandered off was too relevant not to sing today.

Last night Lady decided to jump the fence instead of going into the barn. Then she got very upset because she “couldn’t” get back to the others. I pulled the fence up so she could run under it, she sighed in relief… and then promptly jumped out again. Then we were both very upset.

I did eventually get her into the barn, but this morning she jumped straight out again instead of going into the field. Then Mira decided to go with her. Then Princess got mad because it Wasn’t Fair that Lady got to escape and not her. Next thing I know half the flock is out and steadfastly ignoring my attempts to call them back.

“Fine.” I said, “Be that way. I’ll just close the gate and leave you out. So there.” I went back to the house and kept an eye on them from the window until the novelty of their Splendid Game wore off. Apparently it’s only fun to escape if ShepherdPerson is outside freezing to death watching the fun, because they started pacing the fence wanting back in pretty quickly.

“Mommy! There’s a fence in the way! We can’t get in!”

Getting out is always so much easier than coming back. I filled the hay feeder for the good sheep who didn’t escape, and suddenly getting back in wasn’t so hard after all. Amazing how that works.

“They’re eating all the hay! Stop, that’s MY hay!”

Princess doesn’t like to jump very much, but if it’s a choice between jumping and missing out on breakfast she’ll go over the fence in a flash.

“Wait for me!”

Mira can also jump very high if she wants to, but she’s little and doesn’t have horns to get tangled, so she prefers to wiggle under the fence.

“Abort! Abort!”

Bran, being a boy, tried to go through the fence instead of going over or under. That didn’t work so well.

Lady, despite being the most willing of all my sheep to jump a fence, continues to be baffled by the concept of jumping back, so once again I had to pull one of the fenceposts out and hold the fence up for them to run under.

“Are you sure we’re allowed? Fences are pretty scary, maybe we better not chance it!”

Eventually everyone was reunited, and happily digging into the hay feeder.

“Munch, munch, munch!”

Except little Mira of course, who was far more interested in rifling through my pockets.

“Any crunchies in here for me?”

I suppose the sheep didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions to be good and do as they’re told. That would have been too much to hope for.