"Madison" - Our Sheep on Crack!

We received Madison from a loving family just this past summer. She is an older ewe around 5 years old. The reason the family was re homing her was because Madison had always lived with her momma, and her momma was getting quite up there in age (around 12+yrs old) and the owners were worried her momma would not last another winter. Because Madison's past owner did not have any other sheep, she was worried what would happen to Madison once her momma was gone. So, I offered to give her a home. The owner told me that Madison had never been breed. I figured I would give it a try, and see if she could fit with the program. If not, she still always had a home here.





On a beautiful summer day we took the horse trailer and drove 2 hours down south to go meet and pick up Madison. Her owner had told us that she was a "hair" sheep and that she shed her hair naturally, and prob. didn't need shearing. That was cool with me! One less sheep to shear!! Yipppeeee!





We got there, met the family, took a tour of their farm, and met Madison - Great people by the way! Madison was a little "wilder" than we were accustomed to but we didn't think much about it because all of our sheep are handled to the nines, so they are like dogs. Unlike most people's flocks. Let me say, having tame sheep really makes herdsmanship MUCH easier.





So we loaded Madison in the back of the trailer and closed the door. While we were saying our goodbye's to the owners, Madison starting to BAAAA. (Really loud) No biggy, we were used to that- Try going out to eat while out of town with a sheep in the trailer and have the darn thing BAAAAA the whole time your in the restaurant eating!





While we were standing there chatting, Madison decided to jump up into the manger of the trailer! That one threw me for a mental loop! I had *never* seen a sheep launch itself into the hay manger 4ft up! So there sat the sheep, BAAAA-ing away inside the trailer, standing in the hay manger- all you saw was legs when you looked in the window!





Our ride home was interesting. I was worried that the darn sheep would fall out of the hay manger and come crashing down on the floor of the trailer while we were flying down the highway! I spent my whole ride home in the truck looking out the side mirror- trying to see in the trailer windows to see if she was up there again. And of course, she was... I swear she rode the entire trip home up there!





We finally get home. She's still BAAAA-ing away. (At least my non-farmy next door neighbors are used to us and our quirks!) I ran in the house to get the wormer and vaccines ready. Whenever any new sheep come here- they get vaccinated, wormed, and hooves trimmed. I had our 1 yr old baby in his stroller so we could get Madison out of the trailer. To keep the baby occupied I bent down to give him some toys. While doing that I heard this HUGE crash and saw a flash of sheep out of the corner of my eye!





It was my husband's doing (Isn't that always the case! lol)... He decided not to wait for me, and opened the emergency escape door on the trailer just to peek in and check on her. Well she was like a bull in a china shop!! As soon as that door creeped open, she rushed my husband and came flying out the door! Almost knocking him to the ground! No small feet given my husband's 6ft 2", and 250lbs!





So there was our new sheep... Running wild around our front yard! Great, now what do we do?? I tried grain... I laid the pan down figuring she would go for it. Yeah right, that didn't work!
This cracked out sheep wasn't having anything to do with ANYTHING I tried. She ran around and around our barn. Every time we came within 2 ft of her she shot off like someone stuck a lit rocket in her butt. Around and around she went, we went one way, she went another... This went on for almost half an hour! LUCKILY, it was dinner time on the farm and my existing flock of sheep heard our "not so kind" words and started Baaa-ing. Madison heard the other sheep and ran down to the pasture fence to be with them. That's when we were finally able to catch her!





To this day she is still a pain to catch. She is afraid of the world, it's not her fault- It's her breed. Every time we have to do hooves, and worm our flock we spend half an hour chasing her around the pasture. And every time we wonder when we are going to use catch chutes, or dogs to help us...