A rescue mission

I'm not sure what to title this post. "Bloody Mr Fussy and his lunch box" or "I should have kept driving"?

Today was slightly better than yesterday, and then it went downhill fast.

Mr Fussy has been out driving his tractor all day far from the main house, so he called up wanting a lunch box delivered to him. Luckily it was just on lunch time, so I was moderately prepared. So I pack the lunch and then the Darlings into the car and drove out to where he was.

There was music on in the car, so the Darlings forgot about what they were squabbling over and it was a rather pleasant drive through pretty countryside. There are paddocks full of ewes and lambs and I'm thinking how lucky we are to so far escape having to raise an orphans (remember those bad Merino mothers?)

So we find the tractor, drop off the lunch box and head back the way we came. As we turn a bend in the road, there in the paddock next to the fence is a lone lamb. I slow down to have a look. It wasn't there 20 minutes ago when we drove past.

About 500m in the distance is mum, and the rest of the mob are way on the other side of the paddock. Mum is down and struggling. It doesn't look pretty.

I ring Mr Fussy.

No answer. So with great difficulty I straddle the fence and walk as close to the mum as I think I can. She's not going to make it (I'll spare you the gruesome details). The lamb is still at the fence, hopefully oblivious to what is happening.

Crap. What to do?

I could go away and come back in a few hours to see if (a) mum made it and stood up, or (b) the lamb found the mob and a new mum. But I knew that neither of those things were going to happen. Plus I have also seen a very large fox hanging out at this bend of the road. So I did what any inexperienced city girl would do. I scooped the poor lamb up, found a towel in the back of the car, wrapped it up and took it home.

Now what? I try to ring Mr Fussy. No answer. I ring the Mother-In-Law. Thank goodness, she answers. I find the teats, the powdered milk, I salvage a beer bottle from the bin and Bob's Your Uncle! We have formula for the lamb!

So far I've managed to get it to drink a little bit, but I don't hold out much hope for my abilities. I think the dog, Coco might have a better chance looking after it than me.