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A lamb's story

Kids from the Bowen Home Learners Group and Island Discovery School made a visit to Endswell Farm this week. The farm is host to bunnies, horses, donkeys, pigs, and, a brand new generation of adorable little lambs.

Kids from the Bowen Home Learners Group and Island Discovery School made a visit to Endswell Farm this week. The farm is host to bunnies, horses, donkeys, pigs, and, a brand new generation of adorable little lambs. Among them, is a small male named Agnus Dei (Latin for “Lamb of God,”) who has required special care by Rosie Montgomery, Corinna Headley, Noah Pryce-Jones, and all the others who take care of the animals at Endswell.
Agnus Dei’s mom, his real mom, is named Mr. Tumnes (the character with curly brown hair and short horns in the Narnia stories).
“Mr. Tumnes is our biggest ewe, and she’s the leader,” says Rosie. “She’s also so friendly and protective. After giving birth, we marched her and her brood into a bonding pen.  Afterwards, we spotted little Agnus in with all the big lambs, and so we him in the bonding pen too.”
“The next morning, Noah was down in the barn and called me to say I had better get there quick, because Mr. Tumnes was trying to kill this little lamb.”
Rosie and Noah pulled Agnus from the bonding pen, and took him up to the house to be bottle fed and cared for. A call to a sheep expert on the mainland would decide this lamb’s future. She advised that the lamb be brought back down to the barn immediately and housed with an ewe on the cusp of giving birth. When the lamb does give birth, put the water sack on top of the abandoned lamb, and hope that the ewe licks the sack off and accepts the lamb as its own.
So Rosie brought Agnus Dei down to the barn, and into a pen with a lamb named Naomi. Sure enough, after giving birth to three other lambs, Naomi licked the water sack off Agnus and seemed to not distinguish him from the others.
“Usually even triplets are tricky,” says Rosie. “Usually I’ve got to bottle feed at least one of them and I have been bottle-feeding Agnus Dei a little.  Mostly though, Naomi has been managing to feed all four of them herself. These days, Naomi seems annoyed with Agnus, not totally keen on him, but at least he has a family, and siblings, which means he has some protection.”