Have you ever listened to a Maserati GranTurismo start?  If you have not, Google it and listen to its throaty growl as it starts up.  I like cars.  I like how they sound, and I like the feel of a powerful engine roar as you pick up speed on an open road.  I like the design of a well-thought-out car, and I like the mechanics of it, especially if it is Italian.  There is some finesse to their designs that is akin to a beautiful Italian suit or shoe. It’s just right! The smell of fresh oil and petrol is intoxicating – I wonder why there is no cologne mimicking that scent?  Or maybe there is and I don’t know about it.  Someone, please enlighten me.

This story is not about a car.  Believe it or not, this is about my sheep! I told you I was going to get a ram and some 3 ewes.  Well, the ram is here, but the ewes are yet to come.  He is a fine specimen.  When he bleats, he sounds like the Maserati GranTurismo of the sheep world.  Deep throaty bleat that announces him as the fine specimen he is. I suspect when the ewes do arrive and meet him, they will swoon and faint at his beauty.  He is “chonky” and proud and walks with a spring in his step.  Very fine specimen if I do say so myself!

When he first arrived, I was worried about a number of things. First of all, my dogs have never met a sheep.  Given their tendency to test and figure out their world through taste, I was worried they would bite a chunk off him just to understand what he was. Then there was Mooshoo.  She too has never seen a sheep, but Mooshoo is known to corrupt the good morals of most animals she meets.  I would hate for a bond or friendship to form between my sheep and Mooshoo!

I picked the ram from my neighbour, and saved him from being neutered.  I guess that’s good for him? When he arrived, he was a little disoriented.  We had locked up the dogs, seeing as I was not sure what they would do when they set eyes on him.  The following day, we set about introducing the dogs to the sheep.  He took one look at the dogs and let out one of his throaty bleats.  Kronk took off!! The other dogs were cowering in a corner.  I could not believe it.  These are guard dogs! Meant to protect the homestead from marauding enemies, and they are scared of a bleating sheep? Heaven help us!!

Now, the ram had, by day two, imprinted on one of my groundskeepers.  This guy is a general animal whisperer.  I have caught Mooshoo trying to leave with him as he takes his day off.  The dogs never leave his side, and the chickens are happy to cluck-cluck around him.  Well, the sheep started to get miserable away from him.  He would bleat incessantly and almost pitifully until the groundskeeper came by.  We decided we might as well tether him next to the groundskeeper.  Of late, we don’t tether him anymore.  We let him roam free and mow the lawn as he pleases.

Then a week ago, I saw something interesting.  I was dead-heading my flowers and pruning my shrubs next to my groundskeepers, who were busy with some stonework repairs we were doing.  The rum drifted by, looked at the stones and decided they were not interesting.  Then, one of the dogs (Joey) went up to the sheep and sniffed his nose. And they stood like that for a while.  If you ask me, it looked like an induction ceremony to get the rum inducted into the family of canines.  The other dogs watched, almost with a nod of approval.  So now my sheep is part of the dog pack? Oi!

Mooshoo is still not sure about this sheep. The bleat still scares her, and she has been sniffing around him without quite establishing what breed of “dog” he is.  Here is my concern though.  Since the sheep is now part of the dog pack, I suspect Mooshoo will soon bring him into the house to introduce him to her bed and the rest of the house.  I am watching keenly. Here is my other dilemma.  The sheep has been inducted into the dog pack.  Which makes him part of the pet family, which means I cannot serve him up as lamb chops, in which case I need to get him a name as he is no longer a dinner table option.  I am still racking my brain on that one, but Barnaby or Kilunda sound almost appropriate! Care to weigh in on a name?