The Birds and the Bees

I don’t believe this. Seven years of raising and selling sheep, and I’ve never had such a ridiculous thing happen.

Last week a customer and her family came to the ranch to buy a ewe lamb. The sheep gathered around, especially the rams, and happily greeted the visitors. We discussed sheep raising, various traits specific to Cotswolds, etc. while we petted sheep, and my guests got to know them. My buyer spotted one gray/black ewe lamb, Bouidica, that particularly appealed to her. We coaxed all the sheep into the barn with some hay, so we could catch a couple of the lambs for a closer look.

It was pretty crowded in the barn: 25 sheep, six visitors, and me. One of the other ewe lambs walked by, so we caught it, and they looked her over but decided they liked Bouidica better. So, we searched the flock and spotted her. It took a bit of maneuvering, but one of the boys managed to catch her. We toppled her to the ground and looked at the quality of her wool. My customer decided that was the one she wanted, so a couple of her kids lugged the lamb to their van.

Everybody was happy (except maybe the lamb, who was in for a two-hour ride stuck in a dog crate).

The next morning the phone rang. My customer said guess what, Bouidica isn't Bouidica. She's a boy.

What! No, I couldn't believe it. I simply could not have overlooked that very important detail when we caught "Bouidica" to examine her wool before putting her in the van. True, the lambs in question are seven months old, so their wool is pretty long. Also true, young rams are not fully developed, so their "plumbing" is not near as obvious as that of adult rams. But still!

The buyer was very understanding--none of them had noticed the "problem" either. I told her I would figure out how to get the right lamb to her; since they are two hours away, it was going to take a bit of planning. However, she said they had been very impressed with my adult rams and had decided they wanted to keep him. They did, however, want to know who he was! Also, if he wasn't closely related to Zenobia (see previous posts), they would like to purchase her to breed the pair.

I checked my flock book and discovered they had Sophocles, one of Minerva's twins. Luckily, Zenobia is Jana's daughter and traces her lineage to a different line than Sophocles. So at the end of the month, when Zenobia is a little older, they are going to buy her (at a substantial discount as my apology for the mistake).

All's well that end's well, but I just don't believe I didn't notice....