Goodbye Molly

Sadly, Molly didn't make it. Her condition really deteriorated during Thursday night and Friday, and our vet put her to sleep on Friday night. She waited until Foz returned from Edinburgh, and was delighted to see him, but after that she really went downhill. She spent most of her last few hours eating little tiny bits of chopped up carrot, then resting from the effort with her head either on Foz's lap, or resting against him as he sat with her. Our vet gave her an overdose of sedative, and she drifted off very peacefully and with dignity. The barn seems very empty without her. I'm surprised at how gutted I am to lose her. It's always part of shepherding, that you will lose sheep. Cotswolds are tough customers, and don't deserve the reputation sheep have of dying easily, but they're still mortal. We lost another well-loved ewe, Tilly, earlier in the year, which was very sad, but losing Molly feels much worse.

Probably due to the stress of the last week, I have gone down with the cold that I could feel prowling round the edges of my immune system, so I am at home right now feeling pretty wretched. Edward, our vet, said that he felt Molly had left behind a real legacy, because she had been one of the original ewes we bought, and had been the friendliest, right from the word go. We now want to make sure that we use that legacy in the best possible way, so we're thinking of how to take the flock forwards from here. It could have been easy to have been discouraged, but we are determined to pick ourselves up and carry on.