So we were sitting down in front of the television tonight, eating the grilled cheese sandwiches I'd made after my first dinner attempt went up in smoke. DreamGuy had the TV on CNN or something with Ron Paul blathering away. I grabbed the remote and switched to a station showing old Andy Griffith shows. Ahhh. Much more relaxing and enjoyable to me. The episode of Andy Griffith was the one where a goat got loose and they thought it ate some dynamite. Edited to add: The episode was called "The Loaded Goat." The whole episode is online here.

During the commercial, I kept hearing this bleating sound. I got DreamGuy to mute the TV so we could listen. It was the strangest sound. Maybe it was a crow injured in the yard? Some other critter? We went out to investigate. And like me, you are not going to believe what we found outside our fence in the back yard.


Meet Rambo, or as I call him, Lambo!


I am so not kidding. A lamb! In our yard! We had no clue what to do. We penned up the dogs and DreamGuy brought him into the yard. He followed us around, no bigger than our cat Beau, so he is maybe 15 pounds. Tiny! He's a boy, with the usual male equipment, and two little notches in the top of his head where his horns will be someday.

Lucky for us, we have some friends locally who raise sheep on a small farm outside of town. I called them up and begged them to let me bring the lamb to them for the night. At this hour on new year's night, how are we going to find his owners? Alas, they are going out of town, and based on my description (and the flickr pictures), they guessed that the lamb was not yet weaned. Which means bottle feeding, and a need for tending they can't provide while they're away. Dammit.

So we've got a lamb for the night. They told me how to care for him, and some of my other calls were returned, providing even more information about how to keep him for the night. So he's in Rosey's old crate in the hall, with a towel and a bowl of water. He's adorable! Until he takes his first crap, I'm sure. We haven't gotten to that yet.



But he has had his first feeding! I had to run to the store and get some goat's milk and a baby bottle. He took to the bottle like a pro, leading us to believe he's definitely used to bottle-feeding. He's definitely used to people. The dogs went insane, but Beau has just been curious. With his little belly full, he's snuggled up and bedded down for the night. He is very quiet, and seems very content. On the way to the store, I drove all around the neighborhood, asking anybody I saw outside if they knew where the lost lamb might have come from. The looks I got!

DreamGuy posted some of the photos on a forum he frequents, and several local folks have already spoken up and volunteered to take him if we can't find his owners. If we don't find the owners, our sheep-farming friends said they would definitely take him when they get back home this weekend. In the meantime, I've called Animal Control (no reports of a lost lamb) and the police non-emergency number (same). I called my own vet's on-call service to just get some basic info on caring for this thing, and they actually had somebody from Mississippi State vet school call me back. That was helpful, too. I've called a couple of local news stations, trying to get them to help us get out the word, hoping his owners will show up.

We will make it through the night just fine. God knows what kind of mess we'll find in the morning, though. DreamGuy and I both have to work long days tomorrow, so we're going to load up the crate and take it to DreamGuy's store for the day. I've let all the TV stations know that's where they can visit Lambo tomorrow and they seemed like they might actually pick up the story if it's a slow news day (please be a slow news day).

In the meantime, I'm sitting here wondering what the fuck???

In other news, my father is not doing so well. He had a polyp removed from his colon a few days ago, and was to be released this morning. It was an outpatient procedure technically, but due to his age, they wanted to keep him a few days. Instead of coming home today, they determined that he was developing an infection, and they took him back for a second surgery. Once inside, they found that he'd sprung a leak and started going septic. They had to give him an ileostomy bag until his insides heal up, then he'll go back for another "minor" surgery to have that removed and everything put back where it belongs. He'll be in intensive care for the next day or so, then to a regular room, then home, we hope.

My mother is 70 herself (dad is 73), and she's so stressed, she is getting physically ill. She hates driving my father's land-barge of a Lincoln Town Car, which is all they have for a car since Mom's was totaled a year or two ago. My sister has not been as reliable a help to my mother as I'd hoped she'd be. Nobody could raise her on the phone today when my mother was trying to find somebody to take her back up to the hospital.

My father has been in the hospital since the 27th. My mom spent that first night with him, but went home (sick) the next day. Since then, my dad has had exactly one visit, from my sister, on Saturday. Today is Tuesday. On Saturday, my sister said he was delirious with pain, and when she asked the nurse what pain meds he'd had, they said, "None. He hasn't asked." I worry about the care he's getting, to say the least. I feel awful about this for both of my parents. I'm feeling guilty for not dropping everything and running over there to help them. They keep insisting everything is OK. And I have great big control issues where my family is concerned, and I have worked for years to keep from giving in to the tendency I had most of my life to swoop in and take control and make everything OK.

But I'm feeling like I do need to drop everything and go. My mom says there's no point, since he can only have visitors on a very limited basis (4x/day for 20 mins) anyway. I don't know. If things go OK for the next couple of days, I think DreamGuy and I will head over there for the weekend. If you are a praying type of person, please keep my parents in your prayers. They need them!

OK. Must get to bed. 5:00 will come awfully early. At least there's no mental gymnastics about my clothing choice for tomorrow. Since the day will start with some serious animal husbandry, it's going to be a jeans day all the way!

Hey. Somebody tell me, what does this whole thing with the lamb mean? Everything I see online points to "good omen," and I hope that's true.