As you know we are commercial cattle breeders normally, but we took a liking to sheep when I had a couple of pet lambs to rear.
So we ended up with three beautiful pure Hill Cheviot's named Miran, Sharon & Claire.
Sharon had her first lamb a female called teeny, Claire had twin lambs called Poppet & Babs.
Miran had a little boy and we thought it only fitting to call him Creag Mhor Creagy for short.
We had to give a hand to help him into the world as he was so large, his mother was very large so we expected twins but she only had Creagy, both doing really well.
She went into labour in the morning a week last Tuesday, she struggled for a while, we thought it was best to let her have a go herself as nature intended, but after a short while it became obvious that she was not dilating enough to get him out.
So we got the nursing pen ready and put her in.
She was as good as gold, my husband held her and I managed to get my fingers inside to put a small pulling rope around his feet.
We managed to get his feet and nose out but it was a struggle to get his head out.
Once his head was out he popped like a cork out of a bottle, I caught his back legs and give him a little swing to get the mucus from his mouth and nose, as soon as he bleated I knew he was going to be okay.
We laid him in front of Miran and she licked him wildly and made comforting noises all the while.
They all answer to their names and bleat back to you when you call them, they are so entertaining you could watch them all day running around and skipping here and there.
Creagy has decided lately that it is much more comfortable to lay on his mothers back than on the ground, I will try and get a picture later to show because as soon as I approach them he jumps down, but I will prevail as it would be one for the scrap book as they say.
The lambs all have their own personalities already, Babs likes to climb on things, Poppet likes to run and jump about and be the fastest runner as she appears to race the others up and down the field, Teeny is a little shy like her mother Sharon, Creagy is wanting to be boss.
They all come in on an evening, the lambs have not spent a night out yet, we have a few foxes in the area, so we don't leave them out not until they can fend for themselves anyway.
When they are in the pen it is like a frenzied free for all each lamb darting under any mother and sucking which ever teat is available at the moment, that is until the mother realises it is not her lamb sucking, then she walks away, Creagy has been left standing in mid suck with his mouth in a pursed position on many an occasion, it is quite a comical sight to see, but he goes straight back and has another go.
What determination.
Creag Mhor
