A Very Special Lamb
 

Margret Hill, one of the lambing experts at Marquis Ranch and Tucker’s surrogate mom.

 

Tucker looks like an ordinary lamb, but Tucker does not act like an ordinary lamb. The story begins  at Tucker’s birth. Unfortunately, Tucker’s mother did not survive. New lambs need to be up and nursing a very short time after their birth or they will not live.  At most sheep ranches a lamb like Tucker would be a loss because there would be nobody there to take care of his needs. But Marquis Ranch is not an ordinary ranch. All births  at the Marquis Ranch are supervised, be it during the day or in the middle of the night.

 

What do you do with a newborn lamb that needs to be bottle fed every two hours?  At Marquis Ranch you bring them into the Ranch house. Tucker began his life in the laundry room where it was convenient to do his feedings.

 

As you can imagine, a baby lamb is not toilet trained, so Tucker wore a diaper. As Tucker grew older he still needed to be fed from a bottle so he was allowed to roam throughout the house so he would be available for his feedings.

 

He liked to climb on the furniture and found the easy chair very comfortable. He could often be found sound asleep there or observing the cat (who wasn’t at all sure she liked the company.)

 

Tucker learned to walk on a leash and offered often accompanied Margret when she went shopping. Tucker has been in Target, Walmart, the Feed Store, the bank and other places where Margret needed to go. Tucker always created a sensation when he walked around the stores on a leash, especially with the children. He likes to be petted, and likes the attention.

 

After a while Tucker started to grow larger, but he still liked to sit in peoples’ laps, even though  he was getting a bit large for that, and he could still be found lounging in a chair.

 

When Tucker was a few months old he was allowed to go out in the sheep enclosure with the other lambs. They accepted Tucker but did not quite understand why people would come and lead him away on a leash, while they were content to stay in their shelters.

 

Tucker lives mostly outside these days but he still likes to visit with people, he still likes to walk on a leash, and he will always be a  little different than most lambs.

 

Please don’t tell Tucker that he is a lamb.