Full animal stories and their rescue details coming soon! Click on the photos to read!

Hamish and Duncan, my two little Soay sheep, were brothers born in 2012 in Galway. A local lady who kept rare breed goats saw them at the end of the sales day at the local livestock mart. They were huddled in a corner as nobody was interested in two unneutred rams of this small breed.She bought them out of pity, even though she really didn’t have the space for them or the grazing for that matter. She got them neutered and advertised them on an online farming sales forum where I saw them advertised at 18 months old. I had heard of the soay breed as being an old breed closest to the original Bronze Age sheep and they required very little maintenance as they shed their wool in hot weather and their feet were self-care. I had thought of them as an alternative to lawn mowing which would be better for insect and wildlife. I rang just to inquire and I ended up buying them as she said I was the seventh caller and the only one who didn’t want to eat them. And she was at her wits end at that stage because she didn’t have the room for them and she wanted to get them a good home. So apparently they have dark lean flesh similar to venison and this is why people want them to eat. So when I picked them up, I fancied they did actually look like a cross between a deer and a goat, their little faces. I brought them home in the back of my hatchback Suzuki with a large sheet of cardboard underfoot. And every time I looked in the rear view mirror, they were looking back at me very seriously until I stopped at the Portumna bridge. This was opening up to allow boats through. And when I checked on them in the mirror again, they had turned their backs and were looking out the window. And I saw the people in the car behind me animatedly talking and laughing and pointing at the sheep. So I brought them home anyway, the 40 mile journey, and they settled in happily in the garden. I always noticed no matter which window I looked out, they would be looking back at me, keeping a close eye and always had a very serious expression on their faces. I got two rescue newborn lambs separately in April of 2018, which were company for the two boys when they were old enough. Duncan died suddenly later that year in 2018, much to my shock. He was out sitting under the tree and couldn’t get up. So by the time the vet came out, he had died. I never did figure out what had happened to him. So I was very glad to have the other two lambs, which were about six months old at that stage for a company for Hamish. But even so, Hamish went around crying, looking for him for about a week or two afterwards, which was very distressing for all of us. But In the end, anyway, he settled down and he became the daddy of the flock, even when he was joined later by there was an old girl Augusta and her nearly full grown lamb. So he’s still in charge of the flock and he can be heard calling if one of the others gets caught in a thorn bush or some other kind of mischief. He’s well loved and a valued member of my animal family. And at this stage, he’s 15 going on 16 years old which I think is a great age for any kind of sheep and he’s well-minded.