The sheep are back. Winter can now officially start.

For those with good eyesight you can see the city in the distance. Well you can just about see the cities stunning cathedral. That’s the only evidence of city life. That’s how it should be. No sprawling high rise cityscape here thankfully. Feels reassuringly old school. Apart from the power lines this view will have stayed the same since The Minster was completed in 1472.

So the sheep are back. That means our biscuit budget will be busted. They come for a daily biscuit. That’s a lot of biscuits. Thankfully they are not like our household pets and are not picky. Any biscuit will do. Even the really cheap ones. The farmer recommends Rich Tea or Digestives. So that’s what the sheep get.

It’s a two way process. The sheep get treated and Hawklad gets time with animals. That’s special time to him. Any time with animals and birds is. They relax him. They fascinate him. He feels at ease with them. He loves being with them. All animals.

Well almost all. English Cattle and Giraffes spook him. They always have. He is relaxed with Swiss Cattle just not English ones. When he goes to the Zoo he loves getting the chance to hold spiders and snakes. Will confidently handle Birds of Prey. Wants to get as close as possible to the big predators. But gives the Giraffe section a wide birth. He just doesn’t feel as trusting with them and English Cattle.

But Sheep are definitely on the trusting list. He would happily have all the sheep move in with us. Probably move me out to make room.

I know my place….

56 thoughts on “Sheep”

    1. According to taxonomists, scientists who study life, if a living being moves of it’s own intention, it is an animal. Birds definitely move of their own intention, as do snakes, insects, fish, and many bacteria and viruses. But even that definition is restrictive in my mind. Life is anything that is brought into being by some form of reproduction, changes in some way, lives for a period of time, and then dies.
      No matter how special we think we are, being we consider ourselves the top of the food chain, we are still very much related to the earliest forms of life that came into being 4.5 billion years ago, give or take a few million, when life first appeared on earth. Where they came from, we may never know. Did they arrive on a meteorite from some distant star system that went nova (in which case there would be life throughout the universe) or did such special circumstances exist on primordial earth that life formed here, and maybe nowhere else. We alive on Earth today will never know, unless we are for sure visited by beings from other places, of which so far there is a lot of conjecture, but no available-to-everyone fact. Stories abound, but if nothing else, humans are great creaters if fiction. One thing is definite, life did not appear suddenly 6000 or so years ago. That much is indisputable.
      So, yes, birds are animals. And so are we.

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  8. Animals are such a comfort and it’s nice to see that the sheep are back. Something to look forward to through the winter, feeding the sheep. I hope you both spend many happy moments at it. 🙂

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  10. English cattle always scared me witless. I can remember once in Wiltshire rushing into a phone booth and taking refuge as the herd came by. I think just because they were big and lumbered about. Camels still scare me…as do spiders and I’m not fond of snakes. But sheep are lovely and I’m glad the lad has access to them again. Animals have always been a big help to me.

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  11. Lovely post!
    My animal loving mother was licked by a giraffe once as a child and it took ages to get the giraffe smell off her hand. We never heard the end of it but she adored sheep and pet lambs particularly.
    Enjoy the pleasure.

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  13. I share Hawklad’s love of animals. And as you know, I have avian friends of my own.
    I’ve never met British cattle, but I did spend some time around some cattle in Oklahoma one summer, and I found them to be very stupid.
    That’s very cool that the sheep are back! You’ve got someone else to chat with now. I just hope they aren’t critical of your yoga and tai chi😂😂💌💌💌

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  14. I don’t like cattle and live in an area that’s full of the things. They’e big, horribly uncoordinated and run like one leg is always weighted down by industrial chewing gum. They’re not aggressive creatures but they can do some damage. This year has seen an increase in the number of people and dogs being trampled by cattle largely considered to have been due to people buying pets during lock-down etc.

    Read a story recently about a man killed by bulls that charged him and his dog when he was walking along a footpath. Eyewitnesses said he was trying to shield and protect his dog which makes it all the more tragic. If you are chased or charged by any cattle – let your dog go. Dogs run faster than cattle

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      1. Our also has obscenely expensive “backstage” tours that let you swim with sharks, feed penquin, and other stuff I’ve forgotten.

        I did it years ago, when it was $100 for a 2hr tour of all the back stage tanks, breeding, food prep, and everything… then we spent 45min taking turns feeding sea otters. But they’re super dangerous so we only got to hold their had then offer food through roughly 2.5″ circles in thick plexiglass. It was still bliss!!

        That pkg is now $300, without the tour!

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      3. Cool!! I wish I could join in!

        We have a few wildlife sanctuaries around here (roughly 3hr drive). One rescues all sorts of animals and has open house on weekends. The one I liked is Shambala, run by Tippy Hedron (of the movie “The Birds” fame). She rescues big cats… lions, tigers, leopards, servals, cheetah, and at least 1 liger from people who tried to keep them as pets (she got Michael Jackson’s 3 tigers). As a sponsor, you can visit once a month as the animals are fed. That’s where I was charged at by a lion. There was a chain link fence between us but it remains one of the scariest moments of my life!!

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      5. I wanted to do the shark swim but $300 is too much money!!

        Even with covid lockdown, they had a program where 1 family was let in at a time, for 5 min, to take a holiday pic with a penguin. You have to bring your own camera and take the pic yourself (tripod provided), the penguin is behind plexiglass. And it still cost $50!!! BIG NOPE!!

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  16. “They relax him. They fascinate him. He feels at ease with them. He loves being with them. All animals“. I’m the same but only in regards to warm blooded animals, regardless of size. It’s particularly true when I have a migraine. They calm me in a way nothing else can. Domestic animals seem to be able to sense it and either make a physical contact with me or allow me to touch them – even if they are usually reluctant to maintain physical contact.

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      1. Never seen a snake in the flesh – There’s absolutely none here – not even in zoos. Come to think of it, I don’t think even dead ones are allowed into the country. I don’t recall seeing any in museums for example.

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