PATIENCE MAKES A WISE SHEPHERD

Not to say I'm particularly wise. In fact, I'm far from it. But something this morning allowed my wise voice to speak over the chaos of fear and questions. I ventured out to the barn about 2AM knowing that 2 of my ewes were starting to show external signs that their lambs were beginning to line up for their big moment. Sure enough, Tomi was out in the barnyard pacing around and talking to anyone that would listen and Mary was in a corner inside the barn with indications that her water had just broke and spending a lot of effort chasing other lambs from her maternity room. I was more concerned with Mary but also knew we had to keep an eye on Tomi as well. I gave Jan and Zoe a flashlight and sent them out to the cold dark morning while I pulled up a comfortable chair in front of the heater in the barn to watch Mary. Barney the barn cat recognized a good thing and nestled on my lap. I of course would call out to Jan and Zoe periodically to make sure the batteries in their flashlight were holding out. Mary really never got down to business and Tomi soon had twins which she quickly cleaned and started them nursing. We easily moved them from outside to one of the lambing jugs. Though she was obviously in some distress and making a little progress, by 4 AM Mary still wasn't very far along. Zoe retreated to bed but Jan got a couple of blankets and stayed by my side. By 5 AM Mary was trying her best but no lamb was showing. All kinds of visions of abnormal births started tormenting me. The first challenge would simply be to catch and restrain her and I knew Mary well enough that I wasn't looking forward to that bit of rodeo action. She had been in labor for a long time and I was worried. That's when the patience thing came into play. I was very tired and decided to leave her alone for 1 hour and go back to the house and bed. Maybe at least my mind would be clear. At 6:30 AM, with a great deal of trepidation, I made it back out to the barn. During the short walk from the house I was doing an inventory of all the equipment I would need to gather and reviewing in my head all the illustrations in the book of abnormal birth presentations. I nearly turned around, fearing what I would find. I gingerly wound my way through the newly awakened flock and nursing lambs toward the corner where Mary had staked out. She was gone! I quickly made my way to the barn door to inspect the barnyard. No sign of her! I went back into the barn for a second look and realized I had actually already stepped over her and her new twins twice in my search. Amazing! Mary was fine, the lambs were clean, and both were nursing. I went back to bed.