A sheepish little tale

.....or they aren't as dumb as they look!

A little background. We have two very old sheep left over from the days when I kept a small flock to train Border collie puppies. They spin not, nor do they toil. They are, in fact, pets. One, called Freckles, is white (well dingy grey and yellow really, but they call that white in sheep) with brown spots on her nose. The other, named BS, is very, very black. They have the run of the place and generally hang with the biggest animals they can find, in order to have protection from coyotes. Right now this translates to seven pregnant heifers that run with the milk cows if they are outdoors, or live in a shed by the barnyard when the cows are inside. They also have the use of the barnyard. However, sheep can walk right under the barnyard gates, so they go where they will.

This morning the boss finally confessed to me something that happened way back on Monday. He was feeding late because a certain teenaged boy hung around in the house watching TV instead of going out to help him. It was full dark. The lights went out on the tractor. (A short in the wiring I guess.) Anyhow, he dumped a pile of haylage in the barnyard so the heifers wouldn't leave while he was doing the job and proceded to feed the milk cows. Then he took one last trip up to the corn pile for a bucket load of corn silage for the other bunch of heifers that is still out on the hill.

When he dumped the bucket in the heifer pasture there was an indignant blat from somewhere in front of the tractor out in the dark. He ran around to find a very unhappy BS shaking corn off herself, as Freckles ran up from behind him, eager to catch up with her pal. He had somehow scooped the old sheep out of the ag-bag (where she had been helping herself to corn in the dark) and given her a free ride over to the pasture in the tractor bucket along with the corn. She was not a happy ovine!

Which she proved yesterday, when he was standing in front of the milk house chatting with the repairman who came in to work on the bulk tank washer. She sauntered right up to him and let him scratch her between the ears. Then she nonchalantly backed up, got some real good traction, and charged, nailing him right on his bad knee. She has never done anything like that before. She is generally much the nicer of the two sheep and rarely bothers anybody.
Tell me she wasn't just lying in wait for a chance to get even! I swear I am still laughing.