Yes. We have a new lamb. Her name is Annie and here she is just a few hours old:
When I posted this on twitter, a lot of people asked about Baxter the house lamb. No. He’s no longer in the house. He’s doing well out with the rest of the sheep now. He never did get very big, but he’s healthy. Here’s a picture of him:
Yes, it’s true. Baxter the house lamb now has his own Tumblr account. He started out with a WordPress blog, but I quickly realized Tumblr is more his style. He has the same address despite the new landing place: http://houselamb.com.
I am very slowly adding pictures as I take breaks from my current rewrite. The best way to be notified of new pictures is to sign up for the RSS feed. It’s at the bottom of Baxter’s site, or you can click here: http://houselamb.com/rss
House Lamb’s name is Baxter.
We don’t name most of our sheep. Generally, the wooly creatures do not live their full lives on our small amount of land and naming them makes the process of letting go horribly difficult. I’d say we avoid naming lambs for the kids’ sake, but really that protective barrier is as much (or more) for me.
All the same, even without a name, we’ve been attached to this almost-didn’t-make-it lamb and we’ve alternated between calling him House Lamb and Little Guy.
Sometimes we have to prepare ourselves for loss, as best we can, using whatever means we think will work. This last week reminded me, however, that we never really prepare ourselves for loss, no matter how we try.
Last week, my sister-in-law, Penny, my brother’s beloved wife, died of leukemia.
I knew she wasn’t doing well. I knew it was coming. I’d kind-of, sort-of even prepared myself for it.
But really, preparing ourselves for loss is crap. We love. We grieve. It hurts.
So this week, despite my will to accept the vagaries of life, I take whatever measure of control is mine. House lamb has a name and a home.
I’d say we’re keeping him for the kids, but you all know better.
