Having a small farm in the Dominican Republic is rather different to one in England. It is not commonplace to raise your animals, send them off to market from where they are taken to the slaughterhouse and then you buy a joint of pork or lamb securely wrapped in cling film from the supermarket shelf. It is more normal to be breeder, farmer, slaughterer and consumer all under one roof. And so, one of the things we did on our 'finca' was make sure all that was done properly. When the young are born, they are not given a name as then they become pets just like the dogs and cats.
And then came Archie..... when he was just two weeks old his mother died of an infection. There were no other female sheep prepared to raise the little one so he was brought out of the pasture to me at the house. There was a baby's bottle and some formula milk in the cupboard and it took no time at all for the little lamb to realise that this is where his food was to now come from. From the very start, Archie had no fear of the dogs or cats and he nuzzled them as his new family. A large washing up bowl lined with a towel became his bed and, to keep a good eye on the little soul and for ease of coping with the 4 hourly feeds (24/7), his nights were spent with us in our bedroom.
Still small enough to walk through the bars on the gates, he wandered in and out of the house as he chose and sunbathed in the garden areas. As he grew up he behaved more and more like a dog -when someone approached the main gates, and the dogs ran down barking, Archie went too. He even chased sticks in the field. We went to a party at a friend's penthouse and Archie came too on collar and lead. He developed a passion for Ritz biscuits which he maintains even now.
The one thing he did not like to eat was grass but, as a sheep, he had to overcome that problem and so, when Archie was about 4.5 months old, he was introduced back to his own kind. He did not take kindly to the wrench from home comfort life and for a while would escape through the gate and run back and bleat to come in. Gradually, Archie learned to become a sheep again and live in a field with the rest of the group and, now, at almost 4 years old he is a fine looking fellow and will be running around at bigpalmfinca until he dies of natural causes.
