Catching up on Babies, Part 1

What a crazy last few days.  On Tuesday, the 5th, I went outside to do the normal morning egg collecting.  I usually walk down to a small building in one of the sheep pastures by myself as the nesting box in it is low to the ground and if I let one of the dogs walk with me they race ahead and eat the eggs.  For some reason, I let Gwen, one of the Anatolians, walk with me.  She trotted off toward the building as I was distracted by the sheep gathering around me.  I saw her head to the box so yelled.  She did not stop but she did not stick her nose in a nest.  Instead, she began to snoop around the back of the box.  I caught up with her quickly as I was curious as to what had distracted her.  This is what I found.

I rescued the little lamb and set it out on the ground thinking its mother would reclaim it.  At that point no ewes were acting distressed as though they'd lost a lamb but I was hoping seeing it and hearing it cry would bring out a little maternal instinct.

There were no takers.
After examining a few of the ewes, I decided that Mo had delivered the lamb so I took Mo and the lamb into a stall in the stable in the hopes they would bond.  Mo wanted nothing to do with the little guy in spite of all the shepherd tricks we tried.  And, upon closer examination, it appeared that Mo did not have any milk.  The  little ram ended up in the kitchen and on the bottle.

He is thriving.  He takes a lot of extra work and he is driving our oldest dog crazy by sucking at her ears but he is a healthy lamb.  What a way to start our lambing season.