1) Hey what happened to the Senator thread? The answers are GONE! Am I going to get a knock on my door in the middle of the night so I can open it to see the snarling face of Atty Gen Ashcroft?

And (drumroll as I walk to the podium to accept the award) has anyone EVER heard of any lambs being born on July 7, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!???

Sheesh. I woke up last night (well, 4 a.m.), hearing sheep bawling. I go out to try to figure out what the hell is going on. I look over and see one ewe by herself and then I see that one of our black cats is kind of nosing around her. Oh yeah...except that it's not a cat, it's a lamb! I have been surprised by many things this year, but I tell you, that lamb blew my mind...! No, they have not been sheered (first clue as to why I didn't suspect a pregnancy..plus (doh) why would any ewe be pregnant this late in the year? This is green bean and corn time)!

So does my lamb win the award for latest of the year (in the Romney category)? I'll have to accept on her behalf, I guess. What shall I wear? Anyway, she's a cute little black ewe lamb. Mom and she are doing well. I think she was conceived on Valentine's Day (Mr. S. had been in the hospital for cardiac catheterization and I came home to wrestle my anxiety away by bulldoggin' two rams back into their digs... a death-defying act with bare hands!).

Sigh. When will it end? Got sheep? Need a brain transfusion???

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2003

Answers

How sweet to have a little black surprise like that! Isn't it funny how you thought it was a cat cuz a lamb would be 'out of context'?

Reminds me of many years ago when I had a miniature black poodle whom I was fully aware was preggers. When I awoke to her shuffling about in the middle of the night in the tiny cabin where I was living, I sleepily squinted, grabbed a flashlite and shined it on her, whereupon I saw her with a rat in her mouth! I jumped up, screamed at her to put it down! Gross! She ran away from me, hid under a table, until I awoke enough to realize it was a puppy. Poor thing; I scared her half to death, as if she wasnt having enough trauma giving birth!

I had several lambs born in summer, but then I raised mostly hair sheep and they breed pretty much all year. I tried my best to avoid February and March births; too damn cold for all concerned.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2003

Hmm.

Now I should consider raising out of season Romneys, I guess. Although I can't imagine slaughtering them.

Okay, so where's the Senator thread tho? I get "server cannot process your request" error message. Did I miss something? Or did the post start up some kind of flame war?

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2003

Sheepish, the senator thread might be corrupted - it registers on 'Recent Answers', but when you click on it, comes up with a URL error . . .

Dunno, computers are weird creatures.

Glad to hear your lamb was born with no complications.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2003

Now it doesn't even register on Recent Answers. Seems to be, ahem, "purged".

What does our erstwhile webhost say about this?

I admit to surfing the deanforamerica website but last time I looked, it wasn't a crime to participate in education about candidates! So sue me!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2003

Guess you forgot about the Patriot Act, sheepish! It's a crime if they say it is!

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2003

Is "Patsy" the diminutive form of "Patriot"? Just wondering...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2003

Hey Sheepish!! Belated congrats on the birth of your "late baby"!! It's been many years since we had sheep, so I can't remember what the normal birthing times are. We had four Suffolk ewes and a Columbian/Romney ram...a real pain in the A**! He produced excellent meat lambs...BUT you didn't want to turn your back to him if you were in the same pasture!!! He'd knock ya into next week if he could :-)!

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2003

My ram-guys would knock me into a new century!

Hey we have ducklings now, too!

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2003