Sweet Home Alambama
Late one wet June evening, Diana received a call from Hunter’s Inn. A sick lamb had been seen lying in a field at Heddon’s Mouth in a drenching rain. Di set off in the Ambulance with Mick in hot pursuit, as he had another urgent call to attend to in Bideford.
Unfortunately, when found the little creature was beyond help, and both eyes had been pecked out by crows. Diana and Mick manhandled the tiny corpse into the Ambulance and made off again in convoy.
150 yards later Diana slammed on the brakes and pulled the Ambulance up to another young lamb, in clear distress and gurgling in the last throes of advanced pneumonia on the roadside verge. They heaved the gasping creature into the Ambulance in a driving rain, and once more continued on their hurried way to bring what relief might be possible to lamb no.2.
At the top of Heddon’s Mouth, Diana stabbed the brakes again as the headlights picked out of the pitch dark a strange sight. A suicidal lamb. Apparently distressed to the point of exhaustion, this little animal was hurling itself with wild abandon against a stone wall in an apparent bid to end it all. Diana leapt from the Ambulance. Mick, recovering from his near collision with the rear end of the van as he had wrestled for control in the dark and damp, assisted Diana to trap lamb no. 3 between the Ambulance and the bloody wall. It was only when the ewe lamb had been contained in this way that the reason for her irrational and non lamb-like behaviour was to manifest itself. Her eyes bulged opaquely in the dim glow from the Ambulance sidelights. She was evidently completely blind. The intrepid rescuers made her as comfortable as possible in what was fast becoming an animal hearse.
Diana set off with her cargo of the unfortunate. She reached Market vets at 1.30 a.m. Unfortunately lamb no.2 with terminal pneumonia had to be despatched shortly after arrival. As to lamb no.3, the vet confirmed that she was indeed blind, born with in-growing eyelids that had not been remedied as they so easily could have been. However, although condemned to a life in the dark, the vet stressed that, with appropriate care and in a safe environment, she could live a long and happy life.
It’s August now. We watch as Alambama (named after the Blind Boys of that name) grazes happily with the rest of her rescued chums in the meadow. It’s still raining, but sometimes we see her gambol in the grass. At Long Lane Farm we call it “having a bubble”. She recognises the sound of our voices and can tell whether we’re bearing rich tea biscuits or hoof shears. Her best pal and guide lamb is Minnie Bah Bah, herself a rescued lamb with attitude, rejected by mother and siblings. Little Cloud also keeps a watchful eye, as nursemaid of the flock. He loafs around Boot Hill on his three good legs and keeps Alambama up with the others.
We’re lucky to have them all, and to know they’ll be safe and cared for for the rest of their long and very natural lives.
Gilly and Keith Pugsley
