They mock me !

It is spring and everything itches...well, everything on me at least. So a few days ago I find a handy solution to all this and the Mom Shepherd almost expires with amusement....I tell you ......no respect.

Buddy is standing, looking spooky as usual, but he doe seem to have calmed down quite a bit living with us instead of Butthead. With Butthead you have to watch your back all the time.....anyway, I digress. Buddy with his half curl of horn is standing there chewing his cud and I think "that pointy horn tip looks like a solution to me !" I amble up (Becca says I roll up) and say "stand real still, there, Bud" and rub my ear on his left horn tip. That feels soooo good that I get him to stand there while I get most of the right side of my head scratched. Then I hear the Mom Shepherd having hysterics on the back deck watching me. I thought it was rather clever of me, but she thinks it is very funny. She should be carrying 14 lb of greasy itchy fleece around in the spring sun.

I guess she has noticed my discomfort, however. The barn got straigthened up today, the temporary plywood floor for shearing was dragged out and I think this itchy stuff is coming off soon. I wonder if that is what she is referring to as a "goat rope". I DO NOT see any smelly old goats around here.

Grapenuts

Not that food is important to me - well, OK - in a world of eat and nap, food is crucial. So I hear the Shepherds talking about no more hay. NO MORE HAY ???? Becca says, put your head between your front legs, Benny, and breathe deeply. My life flashed before my eyes - the threat of starvation when they took my Mom to another pasture (and stuck me with Becca and the other howling lambs), the day the feeder ran out of hay for 2 hours.....

What they meant was that the valley is pretty much out of hay fit for sheep this spring. And the backup is alfalfa pellets. Why do they torture me like this ? I LOVE alfalfa pellets. Becca says of course you do, Chunko - that means your entire meal is in a pan in front of you and you don't have to walk. Whatever.....

So the pellets show up twice a day, in 4 pans for 7 sheep and no one seems to get into my pan. Well, occasionally the twins butt in, and I just put a shoulder into them and they go eat with their Mom. Then there is the fiber question...what if my delicate constitution needs roughage ? Becca again - there is straw all over the place - the rest of us are munching straw for fiber. She is such a know it all.....but the straw seems to work just fine. I HATE these life transitions. I know I know - the next one is green grass - I can probably ease into that even thought it requires me to walk for it.

So the shepherd tells me that I am once again a very special sheep. It seems that my clean ivory fleece is so springy that the processing mill can't spin it. I KNEW my wool was for very discerning users. The Mom Shepherd says "yeah, Benny - very discerning - and of limited use if I have to sell it all to hand spinners." Don't hand spinners slowly feel and appreciate fine wool ? Aren't I a very unique sheep ????

I heard the Big Guy Shepherd refer to the pellets as sheep grapenuts....wonder what that is about...