Heat Wave

My last post everyone was complaining about the snow, and now everyone is complaining about the heat. The whole flock came running down to the gate to fuss at me about it when they saw me coming.

“Hey! What’s up with this weather? It’s too hot for wool!”

Except for the Shetland family, who hung back to avoid the rush.

“Unless we see crunchy treats come out, we’re staying over here where it’s safe!”

Lady asserted her right as flock queen to monopolize any treats that might appear. Her last lamb Dandelion, Mr Danny, asserted his right as her youngest baby to mooch some of his mama’s treats.

“I want all the treats, but don’t come at me with any more shots!”

Lady sprained her leg last week and had to get a pain shot. She was not a happy camper about it at all. But she’s fine now and is no longer lying around refusing to get up and insisting that she is at death’s door, so I suppose it was worth her being a bit grumpy with me.

“Hey ShepherdPerson, Angel is my girlfriend now!”

Flynn has been less determined about his hopeless infatuation with Angel since Duke moved over to the girls’ field and set a strict no-flirting policy for the younger boys, but occasionally if Duke isn’t looking he’ll give it a try.

“You’re my girlfriend now, right?”

“Um, no!”

“You’re lucky it’s too hot for more than halfhearted headbutts!”

You know it’s really miserable if Angel’s too lethargic to beat someone up.

Speaking of beating people up, her favorite target lately is Clover. I don’t worry about it too much, since he’s equally as likely to run across the field and pick a fight with her for no reason as she is to run over and pick a fight with him. I’m not sure whether it’s genuine antagonism, rivalry, or a very strange crush, but they’re both very invested in… whatever they have going on. As far as I can tell it started when they ran into each other one night going into the barn and got in a huge fight because each thought the other hit them on purpose, and they haven’t stopped squabbling off and on since.

It is too hot for any kind of combat today, so Clover hid on the other side of the tree where Angel couldn’t see him and begged for treats with his best sad pitiful hungry face.

“Just one little treat, pleeease?”

He is very very cute. Though I worry about the mental health of anyone who voluntarily picks fights with Angel on a regular basis.

Holly was also interested in treats, but is still worried I plan to steal her almost-four-year-old “lamb,” so sometimes she comes up to me and sometimes she hovers nervously at a distance. Holly’s mother Lady stayed attached to all of her lambs even once they were grown and weaned, but Holly holds the record for paranoid hovering.

“This is MY lamb, ShepherdPerson, no snatching my lamb! Marigold is the bestest, most perfect lamb ever! Everyone must want to steal her!”

Marigold seems equally worried someone will steal her mama, so they are happily side by side or draped over each other most of the time. She went through a phase for about two months this spring where she screamed her head off like she’d lost her mama every time the flock went through a door or a gate, even if her mama was right there, but thankfully she seems to be over that habit now. All the screaming got very annoying once I determined there was nothing actually wrong with her.

Holly’s older and younger brothers, Neo and Danny, are very friendly and also very cute and hungry and always interested in whether there might be treats available.

“It’s so hot and we’re so hungry, do you have any treats?”

Sadly I had no treats, so everyone quickly lost interest in me and wandered off to graze.

“What’s the point of ShepherdPerson if she doesn’t even have any treats?”

Except for Nova, who was insistent that there is no grass at all whatsoever in the field and she might die if I didn’t let her in the yard.

“Terrible ShepherdPerson, keeping the gate to all the yummy yard grass closed when we’re starving over here!”

And Mira, who was privately hoping I was just waiting until all those other sheep went away so I could give all the treats to her. Not that I’ve ever done that. Ahem.

“OK, nobody else is looking, now where are my treats?”

She was disappointed that there were still no treats, but they all get treats at bedtime (and yes Mira gets a few extra when everyone else is busy squabbling,) so no one is as deprived as they think they are.