The Briars And The Ewe Sheep

Remember our poor old ewe sheep Papaya with the briar on her butt?

As in THE briar, ONE briar, that’s more than enough briars???!!!!

Well, last night I went out to do chores.  I was running a little late (okay, a whole lot late!) and it was almost dark.  My wooly pig, otherwise known as a Shetland ewe sheep, otherwise known around these parts as Coconut, came running up to me looking for food, as usual.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.  No, she didn’t have a briar stuck on her butt.  You know, as in ONE briar???  That’s right, she didn’t have just one briar, she had a whole bunch of briars!

I went back inside and got some leather gloves before I even tried to deal with that mess.  (And yeah, grabbed the camera too so I could get a picture, even though a flash doesn’t go far when it’s dark outside!)

So, have you ever tried to chase a sheep around in the dark while trying to grab hold of prickly briars and pull them loose from wool?  Well, let me tell you, if you’ve never done it, you’re sure missing an adventure.  Or at least a lot of good exercise!

And in case you’re wondering where she got all those briars, well, The Farmer was being industrious and clearing out the undergrowth from a line of evergreens along one side of the pasture this past Saturday.  He threw the trash over the fence for the animals to eat.

Unfortunately, that included the briars.  For Cinnamon the goat, that’s a good thing.  For the wooly ewe sheep, it turned out to be a bad thing.

And I thought picking those little sweet gum balls out of their wool was bad!

Tagged as: sheep, the briars