PARKER'S PROMISE : in memory of parker palermo

wednesday, April 12, 2006
City Sheep?
Sunday morning a ewe at Hillside Farms in Dallas rejected one of her twin lambs. Dr. Ayers didn't find out until afternoon on Monday so by the time the staff there got him to us at the Animal Hospital he was pretty weak. They doubted that he had even eaten one meal well. Dr. Ayers was able to revive him simply by giving him warmed formula via a stomach tube and warming him up with hot water bottles. Within a few minutes the lamb was shaky but able to stand and support himself. He didn't think the mother would take him back that evening and took the lamb home to his farm for the night to continue tube feeding and just in case he took a turn for the worse. He would probably be able to return to his mother soon, he said. The next day, the lamb Dr. Ayers named Jacob was alive and hungry. He had kept Dr. Ayers up through the night crying to be fed and was just learning to take the bottle as a substitute to the stomach tube. Unfortunately, a call from the farm told us that Jacob's mother had fallen ill and wouldn't be able to take him back - he would most likely be a bottle baby, raised by people. For some reason, I was entrusted with the lamb's care. Every four hours I've had to prepare formula and feed him, monitor his feeding, urination and bowel movements and exercise him. At three days old, all this really entails are a few runs around the parking lot, but it still turns a lot of heads to see a black and white spotted lamb following a 20-something kid around, especially in the city. Jacob is asleep now, having finished a bottle (~4oz) and sucked my fingers until succumming to fatigue. He's become an overnight celebrity at the Hospital and on River Street. While we enjoy the time he'll be here, it's terrible to know that soon he'll have to leave. Maybe he'll send me a sweater when he gets big enough to be shorn.