Hanging around

We should know by now, any change in one of our animals behaviour, any deviance from the norm is an inevitable sign of something being wrong. And today something was horribly wrong but not spotted until it was almost too late. Crispen is our Ryeland Ram, a lovely lad, quiet, calm, placid and super dad, fathering dozens of potential lamb chops for us and another smallholder who borrowed him when her ladies needed seeing to. He is a common sight in the yard, or on the doorstep, where he sits and waits, patiently, for a passing bucket when suddenly he is galvanised into action. Or he might be with his harem, making sure they are safe, their every desire attended to in the process. Well for the last two days he has been conspicuous by his absence. Its hard to misplace a hundred kilogramme ram, but ours was gone without trace.

Thinking he might be up on the bonsai mountain in search of other ladies we were not too concerned day one. Day two were were worried enough to call for him in the cauldron, look for him up by Mad Keith's bone pile and generally keep an eye out for him but to no avail. Then last night when the Berners were let out for the last before bedtime wees and poohs they all shot off up the narrow gully by the side of the cliff barking like only seven Bernese Mountain Dogs can. Eventually they were persuaded back, a combination of threats and promises of extra dog biscuits broke whatever spell they were under that had caused them to venture into the realms of darkness. Now, with hind sight they were doing a Bernese version of Lassie, it was their way of saying come quick somethings up. But they were ignored.

So this morning at first light I set off down the lane, still no Crispen, I pondered a journey around to sheep skull lane but crossed that idea off as he had only been gone a short while, this was only day three. So jobs were done, animals were tended to, sheep were called, told to look for their Patriarch and life generally carried on as normal until the geese were shut away. Up on the cliff a familiar shape was spotted. Hanging in the wire of a broken fence under a tree on the rocks at the base of the cliff was our Ram. Now this was a real emergency so no time to get the camera, not even enough time to get proper rescue gear, the poor lad had fallen landed, bounced, rolled into the fence, fell over the edge and was literally hanging around waiting for salvation. With a broken pair of cheap pliers, a lot of effort an a huge amount of luck he was cut free and allowed to fall the last four feet, thankfully with no injury other than hurt pride and pins and needles in his legs. He stood patiently while I went and fetched the camera, posing for a few pics, the long shot showing the tree on the cliff where he had tried to hang himself, the mid shot of base of the cliff and the close up of the wire hammock where he left a mass of his wool. Typical of a Ryeland he was non plussed by the drama, as he rolled down the bank he began eating. He is currently tucked up in the back stable with a selection of treats, a bucket of water and a book on climbing self rescue techniques.