I once found a lamb caught in a blackberry bush. It was far from any herd. Gently, respecting both bush and animal, I peeled the two apart. Disentangling the frantic lamb took many hours of patience. The lamb was scared and appeared to be abandoned. He quickly bonded to me and I carried him to my home.
Using careful, healing techniques that I learned from my father, I cleaned him and soothed his injuries. His hunger soon grew and I took him to a pasture of lost and wounded sheep, introducing him to one of the dams. She did not understand what I hoped at first, but when he began to bleat pitifully, her maternal instincts told her what to do.
For a fortnight, he would not be long anywhere without my presence. I spent long hours in the pasture with him, letting him familiarize his surroundings. He looked on me almost as his foster mother, and he didn't understand when I was unable to satisfy him. He became very upset when the dam wandered too far from me.
Finally, his affection hooked to the dam like a pot on a crane. He began to wander further away from me. He hardly seemed to notice me until I stood and left him, wherein I always found him trotting by my side.
One day, he wandered to the pasture himself and must have slipped under the fence. He is now fully grown and has a family all his own. He hardly favors me above others anymore, but he is an independent ram now.
At first I thought this was a personal autobiography, Meggy! *hee hee* Lovely scrap, though!
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