they surely wouldn’t have fostered it onto Edel with a big lump like Gulliver to feed.
At this stage, the couple were falling around the table, in uncontrolled mirth, breaking up laughing every time they looked at my confused face.
‘It was such a fine day, the day Gulliver arrived, that we decided to let himself and Edel out with the others,’ began Tom, pausing to catch his breath every now and again. ‘The next morning, I went out with George to feed them and down trotted Edel with Gulliver close behind. Well, I thought I was seeing things,’ he continued, warming to the tale, ‘because by the look of him he had six legs. When he got closer though, I was able to see that two of the legs belonged to a little speck of a lamb and while Edel was having her nuts, there the two of them were, feeding away from her, one on either side, like Little an Large.’
I stared at them in open-mouthed amazement. ‘And where did she come from?’ I asked stupidly, hoping I had missed a part of the story
‘Well, Edel was the last due to lamb. Apart from the few hoggets in the far pen, all the rest had lambed. Sure, the poor little bugger must have been in there all along andwatched the brother being pulled out and wondered what the hell was going on when you stitched her up again!’
My face must have gone deathly white as realisation dawned on me exactly what had happened before Mary quickly intervened.
‘But sure, not to worry,’ she cried, in obvious glee at the story. ‘She was that tiny she slipped out the usual way, not a bother on her.’
Despite their obvious enjoyment of the story, I couldn’t really share it with them. My mind was filled with horror, thinking back to the caesarean and my amazement at the size of the lamb and the unbroken history of a single, and wondering had I really not carried out the usual examination around the uterus to check for a second or even a third?
‘But maybe,’ I stammered, ‘well, maybe, could one of the smaller hoggets have been in lamb and had it without you knowing?’
‘Well, I suppose it’s possible,’ considered Tom, ‘although I didn’t see any signs of it.’
‘And she always was a bossy ewe, Edel,’ carried on Mary. ‘She’d be just the one to decide the youngsters weren’t doing it right and take over.’
And to this day, we don’t know. Did Edel break the trend and have twin lambs, one with my help and the other despite my hindrance, or did she take a fancy to an inexperienced hogget’s lamb?
CHAPTER TEN
BEAUTY â OR THE BEAST?
A s usual, the week had rolled around to Wednesday night before I knew it, and I prepared myself for the weekly Blue Cross onslaught. At quarter to five I was sitting in a comfortable armchair trying to remind myself why I did it. The clients would have another good hour before they would have to get ready to go out in the fierce winds and the dark rain that I couldnât ignore, no matter how hard I tried, beating against the window. Not for the first time I wondered why the Blue Cross couldnât expand to having a clinic in Wicklow.
One look at my bag was enough for Molly to break into an agonised wail. âMammy, make sick doggies better â Monny coming too!â
âNo, Molly stay and mind Sluggie,â I reassured her firmly. I was having more success with the Maltesers I placed in her sticky fist, and feeling totally unrepentant of the buy-off.
Slug drooled hopefully, waiting for the inevitable titbit.
The journey seemed to go in slow motion as I shivered despite the thin trickle of heat I allowed myself in the car â no point in warming up too much.
Surely on such a night there wonât be a big crowd, I consoled myself, in a vain attempt at self-delusion. And a delusion it was. From the far side of the roundabout I could see the assortment of teenagers with puppies, and old men with old dogs and young women with shivering children and somewhere in their midst an equally shivering pet.
I
At this stage, the couple were falling around the table, in uncontrolled mirth, breaking up laughing every time they looked at my confused face.
‘It was such a fine day, the day Gulliver arrived, that we decided to let himself and Edel out with the others,’ began Tom, pausing to catch his breath every now and again. ‘The next morning, I went out with George to feed them and down trotted Edel with Gulliver close behind. Well, I thought I was seeing things,’ he continued, warming to the tale, ‘because by the look of him he had six legs. When he got closer though, I was able to see that two of the legs belonged to a little speck of a lamb and while Edel was having her nuts, there the two of them were, feeding away from her, one on either side, like Little an Large.’
I stared at them in open-mouthed amazement. ‘And where did she come from?’ I asked stupidly, hoping I had missed a part of the story
‘Well, Edel was the last due to lamb. Apart from the few hoggets in the far pen, all the rest had lambed. Sure, the poor little bugger must have been in there all along andwatched the brother being pulled out and wondered what the hell was going on when you stitched her up again!’
My face must have gone deathly white as realisation dawned on me exactly what had happened before Mary quickly intervened.
‘But sure, not to worry,’ she cried, in obvious glee at the story. ‘She was that tiny she slipped out the usual way, not a bother on her.’
Despite their obvious enjoyment of the story, I couldn’t really share it with them. My mind was filled with horror, thinking back to the caesarean and my amazement at the size of the lamb and the unbroken history of a single, and wondering had I really not carried out the usual examination around the uterus to check for a second or even a third?
‘But maybe,’ I stammered, ‘well, maybe, could one of the smaller hoggets have been in lamb and had it without you knowing?’
‘Well, I suppose it’s possible,’ considered Tom, ‘although I didn’t see any signs of it.’
‘And she always was a bossy ewe, Edel,’ carried on Mary. ‘She’d be just the one to decide the youngsters weren’t doing it right and take over.’
And to this day, we don’t know. Did Edel break the trend and have twin lambs, one with my help and the other despite my hindrance, or did she take a fancy to an inexperienced hogget’s lamb?
CHAPTER TEN
BEAUTY â OR THE BEAST?
A s usual, the week had rolled around to Wednesday night before I knew it, and I prepared myself for the weekly Blue Cross onslaught. At quarter to five I was sitting in a comfortable armchair trying to remind myself why I did it. The clients would have another good hour before they would have to get ready to go out in the fierce winds and the dark rain that I couldnât ignore, no matter how hard I tried, beating against the window. Not for the first time I wondered why the Blue Cross couldnât expand to having a clinic in Wicklow.
One look at my bag was enough for Molly to break into an agonised wail. âMammy, make sick doggies better â Monny coming too!â
âNo, Molly stay and mind Sluggie,â I reassured her firmly. I was having more success with the Maltesers I placed in her sticky fist, and feeling totally unrepentant of the buy-off.
Slug drooled hopefully, waiting for the inevitable titbit.
The journey seemed to go in slow motion as I shivered despite the thin trickle of heat I allowed myself in the car â no point in warming up too much.
Surely on such a night there wonât be a big crowd, I consoled myself, in a vain attempt at self-delusion. And a delusion it was. From the far side of the roundabout I could see the assortment of teenagers with puppies, and old men with old dogs and young women with shivering children and somewhere in their midst an equally shivering pet.
I
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