When goodbye is the hardest word....
Andie Stevens-Moore • February 28, 2020
Rest in peace sweet Fabio
This week we lost a very dear and sweet member of our family - Fabio - our Swiss Valais Blacknose ram.
Fabio was one of those animals that just seemed to be constantly poorly. The vet knew him so well and had done so much to try and save him, but one illness after another seemed to befall him and finally we had to make the tough decision no animal lover ever wants to make.
Fabio was such a sweet and kind sheep. A perfect gent around the ladies (to the extent he never sired a single baby!) and a dream come true for me. I've loved sheep for as long as I can remember. As a child we used to go for picnics on The Long Mynd, where the sheep would surround us trying to steal our sandwiches! My nan used to be a little frightened of 'their weird shaped pupils', I on the other hand loved them and would encourage them to come over for strokes. So the day Fabio and Eric - his best friend - came into my life, it really was the stuff dreams are made of!
They were naturally shy after their long journey here and were a little nervous around us. But by the end of day one they were eating out of our hands and Fabio would even let me have a sneaky cuddle to get a selfie together! I fell in love with him immediately and hoped upon hope that he would sire some beautiful babies with our Texel girls Molly and Polly. But it wasn't to be, his constant on and off poor health didn't leave him any energy for the girls and in any case Molly and Polly are a bit of a formidable force for any ram to take on! Poor Fabio certainly wasn't up to that job!
We will miss our special boy so much but when you farm one of the first things you learn is how fast the circle of life turns. We may still be sad at losing Fabio, but very soon we will have a time of rejoicing as Bertie, our gorgeous Greyface Dartmoor ram - a rare British breed - is about to become a daddy for the first time! Our beautiful girls - Bonnie, Bessie, Blossom, Betty and Baby are all due to give birth any day now! The arrival of the lambs will start the circle of life yet again and what joy those bouncing babies will bring! When one chapter ends another begins. But each and everyone of them will always keep a piece of our hearts regardless.
With love,
Andie
xxx
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