Lucy in action

Yesterday on the way home from the farm, I had toyed with the idea of stopping at John's place (where I got the Cheviot lambs) but decided not to- I had leaves to do. But, as I drove by, I saw that one of his ewes had escaped the field and was grazing on a neighbor's front yard. She had to cross a road to do that, and there was a very busy highway just past that yard, so I made a u-turn and went to tell John. Well, no one answered the door, but one of John's helpers was there, and I told him what I saw. Apparently, this ewe is a real pita and gets out with some regularity.

I happened to have my camera yesterday, so I gave the camera to Kevin, John's farm hand and said "just take pics, this might be interesting". So, he did. And here is what happened:


The offending ewe, clearly well fed. Why she felt she must escape her pasture, no one knows....

Here, I had sent Lucy to fetch her, and she zoomed past me and into the pasture, with Lucy hot on her heels. When you tell Lucy to fetch a sheep, she will fetch it, not just let it go!

In this picture, Lucy is cutting the ewe off.... The rest of the flock dropped her like a bad habit when they saw Lucy...

Here is a stand off, an impasse, a non-meeting of the minds....

Here the ewe stops for a little. Lucy has her beat.... So far....

The ewe zigs, Lucy covers.....

THEN.... the ewe gets closer to the barn, and all of a sudden she comes back to me. Followed closely by two Suffolk Punch horses. They were coming to protect their sheep and Lucy was very smart, and came back to me. We then stopped and chatted with John, who was just about to head out to go Beagling.