Cheburashka

The first babies on the farm were born the winter 2019. Both our ewes have lambed. Rosa-the-ewe gave birth to a boy at the end of February.

It was one of the coldest days in February. Edward-the-farmer returned home from his evening routine on the farm and told Faya-the-guide that Rosa-the-ewe was in pain and looked like she was in labor. We grabbed a blanket, hot water, paper towels and flashlights (because it was already dark) and rushed to the farm.

When we entered the barn, there was a newborn lamb standing in the common area. He somehow got out of the closed pen of Rosa. It was a mystery how he did it.

Rosa screamed, called for her child, but could not reach him. Chickens clucked, ducks walked from corner to corner. Padric-the-ram walked around, nervous and confused. He seemed to be asking the question, "What's going on here?" Faya-the-guide put three chickens on his back, and Padric calmed down a bit.

The little lamb was numb, did not move and did not know where to go. Edward-the-farmer grabbed the lamb, gave it to Rosa, covered it with a blanket, helped to find Rosa's udder, and patiently waited for the lamb to warm up.

He was so beautiful, our first baby on this farm! We named him Cheburashka. Why did we call it that?  Cheburashka is a Russian cartoon character with very large ears. When our lamb Cheburashka was born, he also had such big ears! 

Rosa-the-mom and Cheburashka-the-son became very attached to each other. If Rosa couldn't see him for a fraction of a second, she would immediately call him.

Cheburashka very soon learned to walk long distances and we started taking him for walks on our winter farm tours.

When Cheburashka was 4 months old, he ran away. We could not find him. Rosa, his mom, called him for a long time. Until one day a Good Samaritan told us that our Cheburashka was seen on a small island near the farm.

Edward-the-farmer, our nephew and helper Doron and Ava-the-dog arrived there, found Cheburashka and tried to persuade him to return home, but to no avail. He was afraid of Ava, tried to run into the water, and then refused to follow Doron.  We left him on that island. It looked like Cheburashka just got lost and can't find his way back to the farm. We even thought about renaming him from Cheburashka to Robinson. 

A few days later he has disappeared from this island. We hoped, however, that one day he would return home like the legendary New Zealand sheep Shrek, who escaped and returned home after 6 years, covered in 30 kg of sheep's wool!

Two weeks later, one of our farm neighbors stopped by the farm and said that almost every day he sees Cheburashka coming to his property. Hooray! Cheburashka is alive and not so far from us! Well, I must say that Cheburashka has good taste - he chose one of the most beautiful houses in Il-Bizar with a breathtaking view of the river. 

This time we prepared very well and were able to convince Cheburashka to return to the farm.

Home Sweet Home! At first, it was not easy for our little fellow adventurer Cheburashka to return home. Ava-the-dog, a very silent dog who rarely barks, barked angrily at Cheburashka. Rosa-the-ewe , Rosa-the-mom seemed to be positive but didn't express her emotions, and, what is most disappointing ... she had no more milk to feed Cheburashka! Padric-the-ram, Padric-the-dad (padre) was very angry with him. He immediately began to teach Cheburashka, as if he wanted to say: “How could you do this for us? Why did you run away without our permission, you bad boy!!!"  Yvushka-the-ewe, Yvushka-the-auntie offended him on every occasion. Bublik-the-lamb-boy, his the best friend, was neutral. And the only one who was very, very, very glad that Cheburashka had finally returned was Becca-the-lamb-girl. She jumped up, and immediately hugged and kissed Cheburashka!!!

It took several days for relations in the herd to stabilize. Cheburashka was "attached" to his mother and tried to avoid any contact with other sheep. And then everything went back to normal! Cheburashka became very active, he jumped, ran and played with two other lambs, and finally was very well received by the adult sheep.