The Blur of Joy and Sorrow

This past week has been a blur. Between Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we had 5 ewes give birth, all to twins. We had some exciting surprises and a little tragedy thrown in as well.

As we reported earlier, Cupcake had twin ewe lambs, one white and one recessive. The following day, Tinkerbell gave birth to twin ram lambs, one white and one recessive! We never suspected recessive color in either ewe’s background. Sadly, one twin was tiny and we were unable to save him. The surviving lamb is recessive colored with the sweetest shaggy face. We’ve named him Caspian.

While attempts were being made to save the tiny twin, Carmel ambled into the barn and quickly gave birth to a light moorit daughter and a darker moorit son. Again, there was a major size difference between the two, and we moved quickly to try to save the already chilled ram lamb. He spent the better part of 2 days in the house, being kept warm and fed – we figured we would keep him around for a fiber wether (even named him Chesterton) but in the end, we lost him too.  We’re still searching for the right name for Carmel’s daughter – if you have a good one (must start with “C”) please let us know!

Thursday evening, Alice had a prolonged labor. I called the vet to determine if a call-out was in order, but by the time I got back out to the barn, she had delivered a nice solid white ram lamb that was immediately dubbed Cheshire. Once he was nice and dry, on his feet and nursing, we left them to bond. When we checked on everyone before bed, lo and behold, Alice had TWO little lambs with her – one of which was distinctly damper than the other! I actually did a double-take, wondering if someone else had given birth, but the only 2 ewes still pregnant at this point weren’t due for another week – not to mention nowhere nearby!  Alice’s ewe lamb is also stumping us, name-wise.  Any ideas?

The last two ewes (Carla, a Romeldale, and Spice, the matriarch Romney of our flock) will hopefully give us a bit of a reprieve before delivering their little bundles of joy.  Because, boy, do we need a breather!