I just never know when I'm going to go around another bend in the road and find wonderful new life experiences. Right now I'm in the middle of a pet sitting stint that turned into a pet sitting and livestock sitting stint. My landlord asked me a couple weeks ago to look in on their cats while they were gone. He was going to have someone else do the livestock, but I told him as long as I didn't have to sheer the sheep, I was fine doing all of the animal care for them. So two days ago I embarked on what is turning about to be an adventure that I have been sharing with friends and family on Facebook. While I've done a lot of pet sitting in the past, this is turning out to be the funniest and most fun of all the jobs I've taken on for people.
I want to introduce the colorful cast of characters (the livestock at least) I'm interacting with this week. I went the day before the owners were leaving to meet the animals and go over the instructions for feeding and watering everyone. I was introduced first to Larry the sheep. My first thought was "Larry? Who names a sheep Larry?" Then I took a look at his face, and yup, sure enough, he looks like a Larry. I'm going to try to get a better photo of him tomorrow, so you have a clearer shot of his face, from a little more of an angle because then he looks more like a person. His bleat is a sharp baritone note, which is rather startling but not at all unpleasant. It's sort of like a hearing a large, round-bellied man (think happy Buddha here) belch suddenly and very loudly. They are all really big sheep, so none of them have the higher-pitched bleating sound I usually associate with the creatures.
In the photo below, Larry is the one on the right looking into the camera. The other two are the ones I've dubbed Darryl and Darryl, because the owners didn't tell me their names. The situation just reminded me of the character, Larry, on the Bob Newhart Show from years ago, who would introduce himself as Larry, and then proceed to introduce his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl. I always found that so comical and quirky and this new situation in my life seemed to fit a similar level of quirkiness.
Below is a close-up of one of the Darryls. The Darryls like to stick their heads down in the feeding trough while you're still pouring out the feed. So their woolly heads get filled with bits of feed. The pygmy goat, whose name is Houdini, stands in the trough while eating. This is, no doubt, because he is way smaller than the sheep and would never get any food if he didn't jump into the trough and nose his way to the feed.
Below is the other Darryl, but I need to get a clearer photo of him too.
Next is Houdini, the pygmy goat, stepping into the feeding trough, and below that he is in the feeding trough between good old Larry and one of the Darryls.
Last is a shot of the idyllic waterfront pasture where these characters live. Not a bad lifestyle for a sheep named Larry to share with his brother Darryl and his other Brother Darryl, as well as with the great pygmy goat, Houdini. Yes, I asked. He was named that because he used to escape a lot. I guess he's given up trying to escape because what's the point? What a cool place to live!
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