Maude's Pages

February 2001

Throughout this website, you may click on the small
pictures to see the full-sized ones. Then click on your
"Back" browser button to return to this page.

Do you like my new photo? Now that I'm grown up, it's about time for me to have a new publicity photo. I began to think my shepherds were giving up on me entirely! They kept talking about "technical difficulties" whenever I told them I really, really need to tell people what has been going on!

Webmaster's Note: the problems started when we were doing Maude's last page: here's an update of the photo of the sheep in Palestine that we put in for her that was barely visible then.

I've gotten so many fan letters since I last wrote -- some nice person even wrote me a regular letter by regular mail! And I was interviewed by a reporter for Sheep! magazine who wrote the nicest article about all of us for their Winter 2002 issue.

The only problem was, Mr. Bradshaw came out to interview me specially and take my picture, but the magazine editors didn't know that was me with my shepherd in the center of the picture... (Webmaster's Note: Article from Vol. 23, No 1, Jan.-Feb. Issue of Sheep! magazine, PO Box 10, Lake Mills, WI 53551 is used with permission.)

The really big news is that I am going to be a mother! My shepherds kept our whole class in a separate pen last year to make sure we grew up strong and healthy, unlike my friend Meyers who is smaller than her own baby now! (Webmaster's Note: Check Maude's earlier pages for the saga of Meyers' and her teenage pregnancy.)

We are two years old, which is grown up for us sheep, and my shepherds told me they want my baby to have wool that could be even softer than mine. So Slava, our Icelandic ram is going to be the father.

The really sad news is that we lost Teddy. He was doing really well, and then all at once, he started having a very hard time. He wouldn't give up, though, and up until his very last day, he still insisted on being happy and coming up to see us, even when he couldn't make it on his own. We really miss him, and I want to thank everybody for praying hard so he lived as long

as he could and could be so happy. He will always be an example for us, and I for one am going to be sure to tell my lambs about him so he will never be forgotten!

This past year has had lots of wonderful things and lots of sad things, so we hardly know whether to laugh or cry sometimes! Our old buck, Stinky, got very sick, too, from some disease that the deer carry. (Webmaster's Note: ONLY GOATS get this parasite from deer. It is NOT dangerous to humans!) He was just too friendly for his own good! If he hadn't been willing to socialize with just everyone, he'd still be with us. (Webmaster's Note: I hate to keep barging in on Maude, but it's important to point out that she is a sheep and doesn't always have the standards we humans have to keep. We humans need to love everybody -- even when they are our enemies -- and that is one reason Stinky was so beloved by everyone! I guess you could say he gave his life for the sake of friendship... There are worse ways to go for all of us.)

Like Teddy, we thought maybe he'd make it, even when the vet said he couldn't live through that first night. He got enough better to get around and talk with us for several weeks, but now we miss him, too. I hope God has lots of nice pastures up there for all our folks! I don't know about you, but I'm starting to look forward to being up there with all my friends and relatives where we get to have Our Shepherd in Heaven really in charge of everything. Down here, He lets us make our own mistakes and boy do we mess things up!

As always, where there's death, there's new life, and now we have Casper to take Stinky's place. My shepherd tells me he's a pedigreed American Saanen buck and we're looking forward to meeting all his new babies this spring!

We won't get to see all of the babies, because five of the does went to Mexico! There was a special call out for goats to go to Central America where the people are really poor and have lost their own animals, so our shepherds decided that some of us could help. I guess it's a good thing, but it is always hard to say goodbye, even when we know our friends are going for an important reason!

Well, I guess maybe from the way my shepherd is looking at me I need to stop talking for this time. It's hard to know what to say and what to leave out when I get so little time to talk! Just please remember to pray for all of us here -- we pray for everyone! And remember that no matter what happens, Our Shepherd in Heaven loves us more than we can ever imagine!