A Tiny Tail For Mother's Day

Where's my mommy?

Once upon a time there was a beautiful lady sheep named Annette who gave birth to an itty bitty set of twins—one boy and one girl. Annette was not new to motherhood, but she was new to the idea of twins.

When she found herself in a Bonding Suite with two newborn lambs instead of just one, she became a little frantic. And in the ensuing confusion, she stepped on the little girl's tiny leg with her big strong hoof and hurt it very badly.

Annette eventually calmed down, and she allowed the twins to nurse. But the little girl could not stand up on her own, and she needed someone to hold her steady at the milk bar. To make sure she received enough milk, she was also given supplemental bottles.

The twins curled up together when they slept, and the little girl quickly became strong enough to stand up and balance on her three good legs. Things were looking up.


But then, either because she smelled different than her twin since she was getting most of her milk from a bottle rather than from her mother, or because she was obviously weak and injured, Annette began to reject her baby girl. She refused to let her nurse, and pushed her away with her nose when she came near, often knocking her down in the process.

The little girl would not give up, though, because deep down she knew that this was her mother, and that they were supposed to be together. But Annette continued to push her away, and soon the little girl was only getting her milk from a bottle.

When the day came for the three of them to leave the Bonding Suite and graze in the fields with the rest of the flock, the little girl stayed close to her twin brother and felt safe.



They soaked up the sunshine together and contemplated the enormous world around them. When the little boy cried out because he had lost sight of his mother, Annette would rush over to him and they would go off together. But the little girl couldn't keep up, and her frightened cries went unanswered.

Now the farmgirl who tended to these sheep had a very large heart and a love for all creatures that was so fierce it often outweighed logical and rational thinking. For instance, she did not for one minute think (as most other farmers would) that this tiny lamb, who would probably never grow up to be a productive member of the flock, should not be allowed to live.

Instead, she held the woolly little baby in her arms, smothered her with comforting kisses, fed her warm bottles of milk, and racked her brain trying to figure out what in the world the two of them should do.

And then an idea came to her. Late that night, when she went down to the barn and saw that Alison, another beautiful lady sheep, had just given birth to a big baby girl, the desperate farmgirl decided to try something crazy. She put Alison and her big new baby and the little injured twin all in a Bonding Suite together. And to her great surprise, the little girl rushed right over to Alison's milk bar and began thirstily helping herself to some much needed colostrum. And Alison let her drink!

Alison, who was no doubt a bit wiped out from just having had a gigantic lamb, kept sniffing at the two babies and looking from one to the other with a rather confused expression on her face. And while she nuzzled and murmured sweet nothings to them both, it was quite clear that a jumble of thoughts were running through her tired head: "I'm pretty sure I. . . I mean, I see two, but. . . well, I just don't have any recollection at all. . ."

And although the sight of the big lamb and the tiny lamb together reminded the farmgirl of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the movie "Twins," her crazy plan appeared to be a success. And the little girl was determined to make this work, because nobody was knocking her about, the milk was tasty and plentiful, and she had secretly always wanted a sister instead of a brother. Plus she had a wonderful new mother.

But after 12 hours, despite several little things the farmgirl did to help trick Alison into thinking she really did have twins, she came to her postpartum senses and concluded that she had most definitely given birth to only one baby, and the jig was up. The injured little girl had been rejected once again.

So the disappointed farmgirl, not knowing what else to do, put her back out into the grassy field with her twin brother and the rest of the flock. But when she walked down to check on her a little while later, she found the itty bitty baby girl sitting all alone in the tall grass because all of the other sheep had sneaked into the adjoining pen without her.

And in that instant, the farmgirl made a decision that she knew would change both of their lives forever.

She picked up the abandoned little lamb (whom by this time she had named Caraway), held her up in front of her, looked straight into her beautiful blue-gray eyes and said, "Okay, here's the deal, Cary. From this minute on, I am going to be your mother. Now I can't guarantee that we will all live happily ever after. And I'm not sure if your injured leg will ever work properly. But what I can promise you is that I will always love you with all of my heart.

"We'll just take it one day at a time, and do the best we can. I will spend as much time with you during the day as possible, and at night you will sleep in the barn with the other sheep, because they are your true people, and you are still a valuable member of the flock."

And for the farmgirl, that was that.



But little Caraway wasn't quite sure what to think. In less than a week she had already lost two mothers.



But she looked around, didn't see any other options,



and decided that the third time must be the charm. So she dutifully trotted behind her new mother as they headed down the driveway to check on the other animals.

Now while the farmgirl was comfortable and happy with her decision, she knew that she had just undertaken a difficult, time-consuming job.



So she immediately hired a nanny. There wasn't any actual nanny work on his resume, but he had a lot of babysitting experience, he seemed to be a likeable fellow, and he was the only one who applied for the position. Fortunately he and little Cary took to each other right away. Now that that was settled, it was time to get back to work, because there are always lots of things that need to be done on a farm.



Cary was carefully placed in the Multi-Tasking Baby Buggy, and the three of them set off for the garden where they spread some organic fertilizer and planted two different kinds of summer squash seeds.

The next day, after taking care of chores in the barn, they all went back into the garden and picked lots and lots of arugula. Then the nanny stayed outside while Cary and the farmgirl went into the kitchen and turned that arugula into some delicious pesto. Cary was quickly proving herself to be a very agreeable and patient baby, and she only peed on the floor once.

As decided earlier, Cary slept in the barn with the other sheep, and while she enjoyed curling up with her woolly flockmates, she was thrilled to hear her mother's voice calling out to her in the morning.

The third day they did all sorts of chores around the farm together, and then Cary had a nap in the barn. When she awoke, her mother was there to greet her, and because it was a rather chilly day, they went up to the house for a warm bottle of milk and a hot cup of tea. Then the farmgirl said she had to do some typing on the computer. But since it was Mother's Day, she wanted to spend time with her new baby, so the two of them went into the farmgirl's little office.

After a few minutes of inspecting everything, Cary curled herself up between the leg of the chair and her mother's feet and promptly fell asleep to the tap tap tapping sound of her mother's fingers dancing on the keyboard.



So what happens next? None of them know. But what they do know is that you should cherish every day, accept whatever comes along, and always love your mother—no matter who she may turn out to be.

The End.

May 2008 Update: Baby Cary is all grown up and doing just fine! You can catch up with her farm adventures and see all sorts of pictures here.

May 2009 Update: Baby Cary turns three years old! You can see how she looks now, plus some of my never before published favorite baby pictures here.

May 2010 Update: Cary is four years old and doing fine! Catch up with her—and see some never before posted baby pictures—here.

May 2011 Update: Wow—Cary is five already! Click here to see how Cary looks now, along with more never before published favorite baby pictures.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the big hearted foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares recipes, stories, and photos from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres—and she wouldn't trade the experience of having a lamb in the living room for anything.