Emily Has a New Friend!

Our farm story continues with this update:
Upon our arrival at the farm on Tuesday, we were pleased to discover another lamb in the penned area with Emily.

Unfortunately, she was ill, and that was why she had to be removed from the herd and from her mom. She was suffering from an infection that was obtained through her umbilical cord.
A vet was due to take a look at her and to give her a shot, and we were assured that she would be okay.

But because it was her first day in the pen, she had not yet been bottled-fed, and was reluctant to have any of it! "Where is my mum?" must have been what she was thinking! She was not happy about us having to force her to drink her milk.
Katie and I were having trouble keeping her still, trying to get her to keep the bottle in her mouth, and not getting it all over us!
Jim came to the rescue and was able to hold the bottle and keep her mouth wrapped around it, too.
Kate and I helped to keep her calm and in one place, and rubbed and petted her, and talked softly in funny American accents to her.

The new lamb hasn't a name, so we were calling her, Chloe.
Chloe is a different breed than is Emily. She is all white and very, very, soft.
Emily has dark legs that look like she is wearing socks, and a sweet little brown face. Her fur is nubby and short and wiry - almost like terrier fur!

Emily is younger than Chloe, but stronger and used to drinking from her bottle.
Because she had been fed first, she thought she was going to get more when another bottle appeared for Chloe, and kept nudging me and chewing on my coat while I helped with Chloe.
Did you know that baby lambs 'bump' their mums to get the milk flowing before they nurse? Well, baby Emily was 'bumping' me! LOL!

After all of the hard work feeding Chloe, she was quite the tired little lamb and settled in the grass to take a rest after her harrowing ordeal!

We were tired, too, and dirty! As soon as we returned home we washed all of our coats! Chloe had shed all over us and also had gotten milk on everyone!
It was all worth it, though, and we hope to return this Sunday with little children in tow.
How excited will they be to feed a baby lamb???

Meet Emily Lamb!!!

We have a new friend!
Meet, EMILY LAMB!!!
Yesterday, we made our first pilgrimage to Ellenden Farm, in Harvington, near Evesham.

Our mission: to feed a newborn lamb by bottle.

Emily is two weeks old and lives at the bottom of the garden in a penned area to keep her safe.
She has two small, but quite up-to-the-challenge, Border Terrier guard dogs, Millie and Bramble.
They run about like loons, barking at anything that moves, protecting their young charge.

The lamb's mum didn't have enough milk to feed the triplets she had, so the farm's owners were accepting volunteers to feed her at specific times during the day.
We couldn't have been more excited if the Queen herself were offering a personal invitation to visit her!

Emily Lamb has been named by one of the farm children, a young lady of eight years, who named her after herself. Her surname, is of course, Lamb.

My patient husband has volunteered to be our driver, to and from the farm, for our shifts.
Now, we do not live close th this farm; we drive about 45 minutes to get to it.
So it is no small feat to volunteer to drive two crazy women to the country to feed a lamb.
Jim kept making tidy little comments about mint sauce all the way there! But we were not dismayed; we knew he has a soft spot for all animals, and he was just doing a bit of teasing.

Upon our arrival at the farm shop, we were ushered into the kitchen area and taught how to prepare the bottle for feeding 'our' lamb. We prepared it, and off we went to her pen.
We could hear her calling to us as we walked the short distance from the shop to Emily's garden.
Once inside the pen, Katie got right to work with the feed.

Emily was hungry!Bramble watches as Katie feeds Emily.
He needs to know his charge is being fed properly!

It only takes Emily minutes to devour her bottle. She has a very strong sense of sucking - she could pull the bottle right out of your hand if you didn't have a strong grip on it.
We were told that lambs give their mums a hard bump before feeding, in order to get the milk flowing! We were glad she decided not to do that with us.
Being a very playful lamb, she scampers away when finished, and she frolics around the pen, so happy that she has been fed.
But she takes a moment for a snuggle and a kiss.
We will bring more adventures of Emily Lamb to you as she grows and our bottle feeds continue!