Common Ground

August 2, 2024

 

Most livestock farmers I know see things differently than me, and when it comes to politics, we’d probably never agree, but I feel completely at home with their hard-working pragmatism, and an affinity with their nature-based authenticity. I’ve also never known a group so quick to come to someone’s aid.

The first time I had a ewe with a prolapsed uterus, I had no idea what was going on other than there were organs outside her body that I knew should not have been hanging there. I called a woman who was in her 80s and who had been raising sheep for decades.  She told me to “hold on”, she was going to have someone call me back. Within a few minutes a guy I didn’t know called me and said simply “Jo asked me to call you”. He described exactly what I was seeing and what was happening to the ewe. He told me how to fabricate a prolapse harness out of rope and a coat hanger. He told me to go to the local drug store and get as much “feminine lubricant” as they had on the shelves. When I audibly balked, he said “she’s in pain, if you aren’t willing to help her immediately – you need to shoot her now and put her out of her misery”

When I asked if there was another lubricant that might work just as well, he just said - “do it or shoot her”. So, I bought enough lubricant to supply a brothel, fashioned the harness as instructed, managed to keep her quiet for several days and bottle-fed her lamb. When I called him back to let him know that she was doing great, he just said, “glad to hear it – just don’t let her get pregnant again” and signed off. I still have no idea who he was, other than that he was another livestock farmer happy to share what he had learned from someone else. Someone, who had happily helped him out when he was in need.