This is Cupcake’s last year with us. She is now 4 years old and had never given us a lamb. She’s also a “special needs” sort of gal. So despite her incredibly lovely fleece, we have a new home lined up for her with a fiber friend. But this year ended up being very different. It may be simply because we put the rams in a month earlier than we have in the past, but this year, Cupcake’s growing udder told us that she had finally bred. We’ve been waiting for her to lamb with much anticipation, praying for just one little ewe lamb as a replacement.
This morning, I dragged myself out of bed to check on everyone at 5:30 a.m., looking forward to just taking a quick peek and crawling right back under my warm covers again. But that was not to be! I arrived to find Cupcake in what I thought were the early stages of labor. I made sure everyone had enough hay and water, and that the babies were all warm and comfortable, and figured I would check back in a while to see how she was progressing. But the next thing I knew, two little hooves had appeared, and not much later a little nose joined them! Imagine my delight when Cupcake delivered a little black ewe lamb! And did I mention the lamb was BLACK?! None of our current rams are genetically extension dominant, and I didn’t believe Cupcake’s flock of origin had any recessive color, so this was quite a surprise! But it gets even better – because while I was busy being delighted with her little black lamb, Cupcake was quickly delivering a little WHITE lamb, another little ewe!
