Farm Fresh Blog

This is Rasta. Pardon my French, but she's a bitch.  (Actually . . . since we are in the South, we don't call her a bitch, we say, "Bless her heart . . .")

Rasta is a large, aggressive ewe who will attack a dog in an instant.  This served her well when Oli The Patrol Dog climbed the fence last winter and attacked the sheep in the isolation pasture.  Roanie suffered horrible injuries, Jamaica later died, but Rasta was such a "Bless her heart . . . " that the dog went on to easier prey and Rasta was left with just a few blood stains on her wool.

Rasta has a deep hatred of all dogs - even Briar.

  Briar tries to stay away from Rasta.  Sometimes that works out for her, other times it doesn't.  This morning . . .  it didn't . . .

 "Get away from here, DOG!"

"Beat it, you stupid white dog!"  

 "You are a DOG!  You are not a SHEEP!  Don't you get it?!!"

Dejected, Briar wanders off to lay down in some sand and watch the flock.

But someone sees her.  That Someone leaves the flock to go lend a sympathic ear.

  Roanie, the sheep who survived the dog attack with grievous injuries, leaves the other sheep to go stand beside Briar.

"Hey, you okay Dog???"

And the ewe who has every reason in the world to hate dogs, stood beside the Giant White Beast, and stayed there. And Briar felt better.

Perhaps this world would be a better place if we were all a bit more like Briar and Roanie . . .  

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 (Roanie recovering from her injuries last winter leans on Briar. It was months before she could use her right hind leg again. This photo was taken less than a month after Roanie was attacked by a dog.)