Friday, December 23, 2011

Ambassador Boomer

Almost the whole way home, the driving rain continued. We stopped very few times on the last leg of the trip home. At one point, I think it was in Wynne, Arkansas, we pulled into the Wendy's drive through. Boomer peered out the passenger window of the PT Cruiser at the drive through attendant.
"What's that?" she asked as she looked out to tell Shawn the total for our meal.
Shawn rolled down Boomer's window so the sheep and human could study each other. He explained that Boomer was a rare Jacob Sheep. The rest of the crew gathered around the window.
"Is he for Christmas?" one asked in a tone that implied Christmas dinner.
Shawn laughed and replied, "In a manner of speaking, he's her Christmas present. He's not for dinner, he's our new breeding ram."
"You have more of them!"  she exclaimed.
Then someone hustled the crew back to work and we got on our way with our very excellent burgers and fries. It's been years since I've eaten at a Wendy's and I very rarely eat beef. Wendy's food is better than I remember.
When we'd stopped the night before at a Subway, my usual fast-food stomping ground, I took Boomer out to walk him, try to get him to drink and let him eat some grass on the median. A man came out of the store next to the Subway with a huge smile on his face. He explained he had been a shepherd in Guatemala and had grown up raising sheep. He asked if he could pet Boomer and they shared a nice introduction.
Then another man walked across the parking lot and asked, "Can I take a picture of your goat."
From where he was crouched by Boomer's head, the first man replied, "He is a SHEEP!" and then he looked at me. I smiled back. It was so nice to have someone else make that correction for a change.
We all shared a comfortable few minutes of education, photographs and camaraderie before we loaded Boomer back in the car and got on our way.
When we got back to Mountain View it was 5:15. I was supposed to be a the living Nativity in the picking park with sheep at 5:30. I stopped to explain to the show leader that I might be a few minute late. Carl know about our trip to Georgia for our new ram and wanted to visit the famous Boomer. I thought about using Boomer in the nativity, but when I saw his travel weary face in the car as he let Carl pet his head, I knew he needed to be home.
We pulled into the driveway, and with the three humans working in concert, we quickly moved the wild ewes and Dan-man into the small sheep run next to the horse run, grabbed George from the main flock and put him with Boomer in the pen next to the house. Then Lena and I grabbed Demi, our remaining Icelandic ewe and Shawn and I went back to the park. I made it at five-past-six. 

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