most mornings i wake up, make myself a cup of coffee, check my emails and then...
i gaze out of my lounge window at the fields and hill beyond the a77 and the row of houses which line it's route.
this morning the farmer was out, amazing how those who work the land are up and at 'em whilst the rest of us are still knuckling the sleep from our eyes.
this particular farmer has two working dogs and it is always a pleasure to watch them at work. rounding up the flock from the surrounding fields and flushing the odd layabout from the bushy hillside.
today they missed one!
i was standing at the window, watching the clouds scudding by, the rain drifting across the fields... fully absorbed in a soft bed of now.
and there she/he was, bumbling around in the bushes ... all alone!
life ... it does make one wonder. how did the dogs miss her (may as well address the left behind sheep as 'her', the fields around these parts are filled with sheep - feminine gender and there are but a few sheep - masculine gender.!
where have the rest of the flock gone?
they flowed across the green fields like a fast moving white river, they disappeared - without hesitation ... over the hill and out of sight.
now, would they be receiving injections against various sheep type diseases?
or perhaps ... deworming or even dipping?
i try my best not to consider the fact that...
they may have flowed over the hill and into a big old cattle truck.
the start of a journey into a future as minted lamb chops and sunday roasts.
will the left behind sheep survive? alone out there in a world of dark, lonely nights and feeding foxes.
there are even tales of a puma stalking the gentle ayrshire countryside.
nope ... i'm not kidding, there have been sightings and a horse was attacked near coylton!
of course, one is inclined to wonder quite how a wild puma might have come to be living and hunting along the west coast of scotland.
so ... is the tale of the left behind sheep a tale of terrible tragedy, or ...
a serendipitous success story?
so far, ms lonely sheep has yet to notice she is the sole (domestic) inhabitant of the bushy, hill field. she continues to graze contentedly, munching away... a stirling example of the "why worry, be happy" life philosophy.
