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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

My Lovely Vanessa


I got Vanessa when she was 6 months old from a breeder here in Wisconsin. A beautiful little black Lincoln. She fit in so well with the white girls I already had. She was my only black Lincoln. As I watched her grow it struck me how elegant she was. The way she looked and the way she walked. Her first year she was bred by mistake but she gave me little Chelsea. A better mom you could not ask for.

Her fiber was so soft. Not like the normal course but lustrous fiber of the Lincolns.Every time I entered the pen in the morning she would greet me with her way of a hand shake.She would lift one of her front legs as if to shake your hand. This spring she had 2 beautiful baby boys. As you all know she really went through such a very hard time having them.With a lot of help and colostrum donated from Jennifer they are doing very well.(Vanessa had so much medication in her body that it was passed on to her babies), This morning I went to feed and she did not want anything. I noticed she was starting to prolapse vaginally again and she was trying to stand. She did walk out to pasture with her babies. I put a harness on her yesterday but it did not hold anything in because it was way to large. Needless to say I called  Dr. Bill and he came right out. He looked at her and tried to figure out what the next step was going to be. He did not have to make a decision, Vanessa made it for us. She layed down with her babies by her, looked at me and baaed and put her head down. Almost like she was going to sleep.  Dr. Bill said she was gone. I sat down on my little pile of wood and I just cryed . Dr. Bill sat with me and said not to feel bad about her because he didn't know of anybody else that cared so much about there animals like I did. I know he tried to make me feel better but at the time it just didn't matter. I know she was only an animal but darn it, this should not have happened. She only had two years of life.  Good bye my lovely Lincoln. Thank you for sharing your short life with me. God will take care of you now and I will see you  and Oliver again.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh no. I'm terribly sorry!

Kathy in KY said...

Linda: I'm so sorry to hear about Vanessa, and it's so soon after you had to let Oliver go. I think that's the hardest thing about having animals is letting them go, or losing them. She and Oliver are waiting patiently for you over the Rainbow Bridge. If you haven't heard of this, it is a poem about losing our beloved animals, and where they are when we have to let them go. I'm sorry for your loss and sorry for your heart-ache. You're in my prayers during this trying time of yours. Take care.

sheeps and me said...

Thanks so much Michelle and Kathy- I wish some one would have told me raising sheep was going to be so heart breaking. The thing to do now is raise her babies to the point that they can be on their own. They are eating creep feed and they do eat grass. Hopefully the Vet will let me know soon what really went wrong with her. Thanks again guys.

Michelle said...

I pray your orphans do as well as mine. They will probably do BETTER, because they have each other and mine is a single!