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Back in October we purchased a very fine Texel ram lamb - with the aid of a friend who has raised Texels for a million years. (Hubby and I were utterly clueless about what made up a "good" ram) We attended the sheep sales at the Orkney auction mart and I just looooooove the auction mart! Whenever Erlend sells cattle or we go to a sheep sale I'm like a little girl heading for Disney Land! I wake up that morning all excited and I bounce Erlend out of bed with loud cries of, "We are going to the Mart!!" Being Erlend he just goes along with the whole thing but I suspect he's more then a little baffled about my enthusiasm for something that's so routine to him.

Did I mention the other lure of the Orkney Auction Mart?? THEY HAVE GREAT FOOD! I love food. So it stands to reason that a couple hours of oggling livestock, yucking it up with the locals, watching the auctions and then stuffing face would make for a lovely day 'oot aboot toon' for this chica!

I named our new ram lamb "Magnus" after Saint Magnus (duh! What else would I name a ram in Orkney??) and was delighted to find that he is rather tame. We've worked at keeping him tame because this means we can walk right up to him in the field and work with him if need be. And there's often a need: we put paint on his chest so he marks the yows (ewes) that he serves. This is called "keeling" and requires hauling him up on his bum. And then of course there were the times he needed antibiotic shots and WOW was the job made so much easier because we could walk right up to him hand hey presto! stick him on his bum. (He doesn't like it but then I give him a handfull of grain and we scractch him so he soon forgets what we just did to him.)

Today Mister Magnus was not a Saint. He was a brat. He's gotten big and we've taken great pains to keep him in his place because he's going to get even bigger!! We don't touch his head. We never stand right in front of him and we always keep an eye on him when we are in the field. Even half-grown he can flatten me!

Every couple of days I take a bucket of grain to the sheep. It helps keep the flock tame. When I call out, "Sheep! Sheep! Sheep!" they all come running. Then I pour the grain into the troughs and they hoover it up like Super Sheep. (I can't believe how FAST they can eat!) Today I could see that Magnus was copping an additude because he kept bashing the Ladies with his head. What a beast! Well, after he finished his share of grain he came to me for his customary scratches and I was happy to oblige. I always stand behind his shoulder so that I don't tempt fate and then I scratch his back and handle his legs and generally keep him used to being touched. Lately I've also been checking his left knee which was swollen and infected. (It seems to be doing better!)

Well the little bugger turned on me and before I knew it he was butting me with his hard-as-rock head! I've discovered that it's no joke when a ram - even a half grown one! - comes after you with his head. They are strong and heavy and powerful and I'm no match. So I stood there wondering what on earth I could do to teach this boy not to mess with me. In the few seconds before his next attack I thought to myself, "Usually if you can overpower an animal you earn its respect." So as Magnus came at me again I gave him a ringing slap on the muzzle. (nothing nasty, just enough to get his attention) He jumped back with a snort of surprise and stared at me like, "WOW what was THAT?" When he came at me again I put both of my hands on the back of his head and shoved down until his muzzle was practically dragging in the mud. He is some strong sheep and it was a struggle for me to keep his head down low but he soon realized that he couldn't overpower me. If he made to butt me he didn't get very far! And he couldn't lift his head either. When he gave in and backed up I let go and he galloped away. As I fed a few of the Ladies I could see Magnus considering me from a safe distance. When he ambled back over to me I stood behind his shoulder and gave him a friendly scratch and he didn't try any of his butting nonesense again.

But then I discovered that the little bugger is JEALOUS! The more I'm working with these sheep the more I'm discovering about them. I always thought of sheep and cattle as basically stupid. Just a bunch of cud-chewing empty-headed farm animals that sit around in fields all day getting fat. I never realized that they had such strong personalities and were smart and ... well, I never realized that they were capable of getting jealous!

Every time I scratched any of the other tame sheep (including my two caddy lambs) Magnus would stuff his muzzle into my hand and make these strange grunty-snorty sounds. At first I dismissed his actions as hunger. "Oh, he's just looking for grain." But he never grunted or snorted when I held my hand out and he nosed it for grain. Hmmm. I would bury my fingers into the wool of another sheep and comence scratching - and here came Magnus stuffing his muzzle into my hand and grunt-snorting. But when I held my hand out and he sniffed for grain he was calm and soundless. I did this a few more times and soon realized that the bugger was just plain jealous and he wanted to be scratched and that was that!

**Sigh** Sheep.