Hi Cotty Great story! My family originated from Shap, near Penrith in Cumbria and as such I know a thing or two about sheep, They're quite intelligent even from very early days and will respond to human commands.
The best way to dissuade them from following is to utter the words "mint sauce" .8) John ---------- Original Message ----------- From: Cotty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "pentax list" <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 23:53:15 +0100 Subject: A funny thing happened.... > Well, what with a reasonably warm day here in the UK, and it being Easter > monday and a holiday, me and the Mrs decided to go for a walk down > by the river. Naturally I spent more time deciding what gear to take > with me on the walk, than the actual walk itself. Anyway, I take a > few lenses and a macro rig as I'm grossing myself out with spider > faces at the moment. Off we go. > > After a few fields, we pass some sheep. These are owned by a friend, > and farmed by another friend. A lot of newborn lambs about, so we > give the flock a wide berth. I hear this tiny voice off to the side > near the river and I head off to investigate. Sure enough, a little > lamb, only a dozen hours old, is laying by itself in the undergrowth, > calling. > > We wander over to see if it is okay. As we approach, it gets to its > feet, and aside from a bit of umbilical cord dangling, it's fine. We > start to retreat, back on our walk. We assume the lamb will saunter > off to join its mates, but nope - it has other ideas. > > It suddenly thinks I am it's father! The bugger went everywhere I > did. Couldn't give him/her the shake at all. And it was fast - kept > up with me at a quick walk. Didn't want to start running with a bag > of paperweights... > > I was getting a bit concerned as plainly we could not just wander off > away from the flock with this guy in tow. Alma found it hilarious, > as the lamb ignored her completely and only had eyes for me. Well > now we have laws against this here in Britain, and so lest events > get out of control, I took some firm action. > > I led the little thing over to the rest of its kind, who were all > earnestly watching events unfolding. As we got close enough, it noticed > the others and went 'baaaaaa'. I took the opportunity to exit stage left. > Little lamby caught me in the act, and ran after me! This went on > for a good ten minutes and I was getting seriously worried that i > would have to take my new found friend back and have him for dinner. > > Anyway, eventually he got sidetracked and I managed to sneak off. He > noticed, but too late and I was up to a mild jog, lenses slapping about > here and there. He called after me, much to the merriment of some passing > hikers. > > As I reached a safe distance, i joined my Mrs and we turned to see > the lamb join up with a ewe, and start suckling, which brought > smiles of relief to us both. > > I didn't take any shots because I was all tooled up for macro, including > flash. Alma managed to get a shot on her 4 MP point and shoot - > here's a severe crop of part of the action.... > > <http://www.cottysnaps.com/snaps/spare2.html> > > There's a place for all God's creatures. Right next to the potatoes > :-) > > Hope everyone has had a pleasurable holiday, if applicable. > > Cheers, > Cotty > > ___/\__ > || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche > ||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com > _____________________________ ------- End of Original Message -------
