Love is....a lamb who pees on your foot.

Sorry, dear blogosphere, for being absent of late.  I haven't been blogging much and I haven't been reading many blogs either.  Things have been a bit busy here - a wonderful visit for 5 days with some friends visiting from Canada, sewing tablecloths for an upcoming charity event (why did I think I'd have time to do that?), cuddling baby goats, celebrating my 41st birthday (gulp!) and the usual mess of school (exams approaching in the first week of May), work and other sundry things.  I've scarcely got time to do this post, but somehow writing a blog post is a pleasant break for me, so as I sit here eating my supper at 9:37 pm (because I finally finished the tablecloth sewing), I thought I'd do a quick update.

My friends arrived last Wednesday after long delays in Chicago due to miserable weather.  I was so excited to have friends from home visiting me here.  Although my parents have visited on a number of occasions, nobody else has visited me since I moved here nearly 8 years ago.  Sometimes that makes me sad.  It's hard to make strong friendships later in life when you move somewhere new, so I cling to the old friendships I have but they are all long distance.  Having visitors for 5 days made me stop work, school, and all the usual things, to enjoy their company, enjoy laughter, enjoy having 2 extra pairs of hands to help out with some farm and garden projects, and above all enjoy the luxury of stopping to smell the roses.  Well, the roses aren't out yet, but the daffodils are!  Here's one of the projects we accomplished - edging one of the garden beds with bricks to make it easier to mow around, and to stop the ever-encroaching grass from taking it over.  We also planted 3 new fruit trees to replace some of those that didn't make it through the winter.

The 4 baby goats that have been born so far are energetic, healthy and incredibly cute.  They sleep...

...they get weighed...

...they sleep some more...

...they play...

...and then they sleep.

So, back to the title of this post.  You may recall Amethyst, who was one of the bottle lambs from the blue-faced Leicester ewes.  She had been doing well and had gone outside to live with the rest of the flock.  She fit in well and was enjoying life in the pasture.  Every morning and evening when I took out a fresh bottle, Amethyst would fall all over herself to get to it, and then she would be unable to decide whether to suck on my finger or the bottle, although I could usually convince her that the bottle was the better option.

On Sunday evening, suddenly, she didn't come over when I brought out the new bottle.  I went in and checked her out.  She seemed a little slow...a little lethargic.  No other signs.  I took her temperature - no fever.  I thought maybe she was weaning herself.  I kept an eye on her.  The next day, she still didn't want the bottle.  She was a bit droopy, and she developed a pathetic little lambie cough.  Also, I noticed that as she breathed, her sides were really heaving in and out, and she had some foam around her mouth, accompanied by grinding teeth.  I was getting worried.  I turned to my trusted book - Detecting, Diagnosing & Treating Lamb Problems, by Laura Lawson.  I went through the charts and determined that the most likely problem was pneumonia caused by aspiration of milk into the lungs, which is not uncommon among bottle lambs.  I gave her a shot of Excede, a broad spectrum antibiotic, and hoped for the best.  The next morning, she still didn't want her bottle, and she was still coughing, but she seemed to be having slightly less trouble breathing by the time I got home from work.  This morning, thank goodness, she was eager for her bottle.  This evening when I got home, the bottle was empty and she was eagerly trying to get milk out of my finger once more.  I sat on an upturned crate that I have in the pasture, and picked her up for a cuddle.  She gets all wiggly and excited when I pick her up, and can hardly keep still in her attempts to lick my face, suck my earlobe, and sniff me all over.  Today, in her excitement, she generously relieved her bladder all over my foot.  As I sat there holding her, looking at my wet foot, I couldn't help but smile and hug her a little bit more.  You see, a lamb who pees on my foot is a lamb whose body is functioning properly, who is definitely drinking well, and who is therefore regaining her health, and that was all that mattered.