A Lamb of Many Names

Uh oh! Lolo has a pet lamb! This little guy was one of Tiny Tail’s triplet lambs. On day one we called him Longhorn, because of a white marking on his head that resembles the horns of longhorn cattle, when they are growing straight out to the side before they turn. His father was Pistol, so we also considered calling him Son of a Gun. On day 3, after they have had a chance to drink colostrum from Mom, we always remove one of a set of triplets, and raise them in our bottle-lamb gang. We have found that ewes and lambs do better on pasture if Mom only has twins to feed. Both lambs can get all the milk they need and they don’t have to compete. With triplets, the weakest lamb often loses out, even if the mother has enough milk to support three. We steal milk from our ewes that have only single lambs, and use this milk to feed our lamb-gang. Little Longhorn joined the lamb gang two days ago. Yesterday he was crying when Lolo walked into the barn. Lolo picked him up and the little guy went completely limp in his arms and soon was asleep. Now Lolo comes to visit him a lot, always with the same response, and little Longhorn recognizes Lolo and cries to be picked up as soon as he sees him. Now that he is Lolo’s special pet, and we may have to call him Lololito.