After experiencing sending lambs off to slaughter for the first time earlier this year and crying endlessly for a month. I decided that it would be a better idea not to get attached to these beautiful little creatures in the future and definitely not to name any animal that was destined for the freezer...
Well... this picture is a self portrait of Tarquin and I earlier this week. Yes, I know. I'm attached and he has a name... it's not exactly gone to plan.
Tarquin was the last lamb to be born this year, he arrived 3 weeks after the others had been born so we had assumed his Mum (Pat) wasn't in lamb herself. He was born in an awful storm on a Sunday morning and after getting soaked and been pounded by hail stones, he gave up, laid down and wouldn't feed from his Mum. Pat was desperate for this little guy to feed and survive (and so were we). We brought them both into the stable and we ended up having to milk Pat every two hours and force feed Tarquin for about 24 hours. Pat was awesome and let us do whatever we needed to do. At last, at about 4.30am he decided to feed from his Mum all by himself and thrived from that moment onwards. He's just as big as the others now.
I guess because we were around Tarquin a lot in the first 72 hours of his life, he's very used to us and would still wander up to us in the field. This turned in to him having a scratch on his head and now he runs up to me for a cuddle and a scratch. He's so affectionate and has a huge personality!
BUT... I know he has to go. It's not going to be easy to say 'goodbye' to this little guy :(
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