Currant is one of my origional Shetland sheep that I bought back in 2008! She was at least 4 years old when I bought her judging by her full set of teeth so that would male her at least 16 years old now! We named her Currant because she is small, round-ish and dark coloured. The year after I bought her she had a ram lamb fathered by our Jacob ram. We named her lamb Lambo, he was spotty like a Jacob sheep and rather handsome so we decided to keep him for breeding with some of our other ewes. Before Lambo was weaned Currant took very ill.. after sometime and digging around in fleece the vet eventually discovered a severe wound along Currants spine/loin area.. The wound was badly infected and there was a gaping hole running right under her spine.. the vet literally could poke his finger through it. Sheep are tough, Currant especially so. After months of TLC Currant finally recovered but she lost a lot of muscle and tissue along her spine and loin so I decided she would never have lambs again. A couple of years later I gave Currant in good will to some people who seemed very kind.. so she could have a nice life with some of our other sheep there.. It was a difficult time in my life financially and I wasn’t sure if I would have to part with all the sheep so a good home offered could not be turned down. Well it turns out it was not a good home and 2 years later I saw Currant advertised for sale along with her 2 flock mates she left with – she was in lamb and looked very poor. So I made the journey and actually paid to get the 3 of them back – they were nothing but skin and bone. Incredibly a few monbths later Currant gave birth to 2 beautiful ewe lambs! At weaning those 2 lambs were bought by a lady as part of her pampered little fibre flock. Rearing lambs took a lot out of Currant so I told her that was the last time she would have lambs.. But Currant had other ideas and 2 years later she forced her way under a heavy gate actually taking it off its hinges and had a romantic rendezvous with one of our rams! 5 months later once again she gave birth to beautiful moorit twin ewe lambs! I named them Almond and Pecan and intended to keep them both. But a lovely young girl and her mum who came to look at some of our other lambs to have as pets fell absoloutly in love with Currants twin lambs.. The lambs were snuggling and sitting with this girl and I could tell how much she would love to have those 2 so I let them go to be a lucky little girls best friends.. And told Currant that was it no more lambs.. just a nice retirement.. Fast forward to May 2020 and Currant is a mum again to a little ewe lamb called Raisin! This time it was our ram Smartie who broke in with the girls.. 40 of them.. and the object of his affections was of course 16 year old Currant! Becoming a mum once again and definetly for the last time (I really hope so!) has give Currant a new lease of life. And this time her ewe lamb Raisin is most definetly sticking put here to carry on her mum’s amazing legacy…..
