Snookums's Journal.

Yesterday was my first day at the sanctuary and it turned out to be quite memorable.  Indra started me off by having me give treats to the chickens, pigs, turkeys and lambs.  We then moved to the pig area where I enjoyed scratching them on their sides as they immediately fell over to expose their bellies for some more scratching.  After some time Indra had something to do in the house, so she left me to hang out with the animals on my own.  I decided to visit the lambs, even though I knew that they were very skittish and shy. 

            All five lambs were in their barn enclosure and as soon as I opened the gate to go in, they made the immediate expected mad dash to the opening to get outside.  Two of them got into the opening at the same instant and a third tried to wedge itself between them in the haste to escape.  So for a brief instant the three of them were stuck in the opening.  I took advantage of that momentary delay and started scratching the third lamb’s back.  Within a second or two the first two lambs managed to free themselves to run outside, but lo and behold, the one I was scratching did not move; it just stood there frozen in ecstasy and let me continue to scratch its back and haunches.  I was making cooing and grunting noises along with the scratching and within seconds the other four lambs came to the opening and seemed fascinated with what was going on.  Slowly, one or two of them came closer so that I could scratch and coo at them as well.  My back gave out from all the bending, so I got a lawn chair and came back and sat down in their enclosure.  They soon surrounded me and I took turns scratching and petting them.  Some came close so I could scratch their backs, while others were shyer and stayed a little further away; those I scratched their heads and necks.  One of them was particularly friendly; we touched noses and ended up by touching our foreheads to each other.  I was thrilled to have made five new friends, especially given their timid natures….and all of this was thanks to the fortuitous traffic jam created when they were trying to exit the enclosure!!!