Love and Comfort

One of my sheeps died yesterday, and then, interestingly, today I got that great meditation about sadness.

The sheep that died was elderly, ancient in sheep years, and now I have only one left, also ancient in sheep years. She is just devastated. She grieved all day yesterday, and then today when my son-in-law and the kid across the road came over to help me move the body, she got terribly agitated and tried to fight with them.

Did you know that sheep talk to each other? Well they do. And all day she has been saying, "Baaa" (Where are you?) and "Baaa" (I'm over here - but I can't find you). and "Baaa" (Wake up and come out here with me). I cannot imagine what it must be like to be a sheep, alone, to lose the last of your friends and companions. I don't expect she'll live out the summer, and am having some guilt and angst over the fact that I've decided not to go out and buy more sheep so she can have a family again.

I remember when I used to have a pair of geese. One night a coyote came and nabbed the gander. The commotion woke me up, and I chased after him (barefoot), but he outran me pretty easily, and didn't let go of the gander.... so that was the end of that. Geese mate for life, and the goose was really really upset. It was fairly early spring when it happened, and every time a flock of canada geese did a fly by, she'd try to follow them, but she was just an old farm goose, too heavy to get airborn.

Then one day she discovered that she could fly over the fence, and that just down the road was a family with a gander - the Wrights. Before we knew their name, we called them The Scavengers. They live in a beat up old trailer, surrounded by a rather astounding amount of trash and debris and God knows what all. Their gander was very territorial, and would chase any car that had the nerve to come down the road. He'd even try to peck at the tires if you were going slow enough. It was really comical. Even the dogs were scared of him.

So, anyway, my goose ran away from her nice home here... where she had a barn, and hay and grain, and a pond, and me. And went to live with her boyfriend where there was no barn, no hay, no grain, and the pond she swam in was actually their cesspool. Three times I went down there and they helped me catch her and bring her home, and three times she flew over the fence and went back. Finally, I gave up and let her go.

I'm not sure what happened to her ... she did spend the rest of the summer and fall with her boyfriend... and then sometime during the winter they both disappeared. I refuse to think they provided a Christmas dinner or something similar.... Anyway...

I guess the moral of the story is... Love and companionship are more important than good food and clean water... at least if you're a goose. If only the Wrights had a ram!