Tuesday with Little Love

Tuesday we woke up after bottle feeding the lamb during the night and found that not much had changed. The lamb could not stand. He would kick his legs wildly trying to get to his feet, but it was hard to watch. He would spin around and it was clearly frustrating for him.

So we made the very hard decision that we would bring him to the vet to put him down. Ivar cried a terrible cry. He couldn't catch his breath. Elsie was slower to understand what was happening until she clarified, "wait. are they going to kill him?" And then she was a wreck. I wanted to be the one to bring him to the vet. I wanted to be there and felt really bonded to the little guy. Elsie had decided earlier in the morning that we would call him Love, and it stuck. We were all in love with Little Love.

So I loaded him up, crying hard myself, and drove the truck to the vet. But just before I got there Rory called and said, "I just found another case like this on a lamb forum. And I think there are a few things we could still try." So I brought our little lamb into the vet, ready to ask her opinion, still uncertain of the ending of this day. I waited in line a long time behind a family with a big dog. And when I finally got to check in they couldn't find me in the system and we realized I was at the wrong vet.

So I loaded back up and drove two blocks down the road to our actual vet. And there I was told that I just missed my vet by five minutes, and she was on her way to do surgery on a cow and wouldn't be back in today. So I called Rory and he said to go back to Vet #1.

I did and she was as great as our other vet. And I just want to say that vets are great. This vet gave our lamb a bunch of shots of vitamins and talked to me for close to an hour and sent me home with a bunch of B complex shots and penicillin.

So we came back home! I had been gone for 3 hours, arriving home just before dinner. And when I got home I found this on the table from my incredibly thoughtful friend JJ. She had been at Taco Night and heard all about my day and then brought this over for me. What can I even say? I wanted to cry. Dinner was literally on the table when I came home from my emotional day. What a gift.

Rory and I gave Little Love a bucket bath in the shower. We scrubbed him well with Johnsons and Johnsons and got him all fluffed up and dried off. And then we fed him, I set my alarm, woke up to feed him again and then it was Wednesday.

I should say that I am super exhausted this week. Alden is still waking up to eat and now the Lamb Alarm is also waking me up. Rory does the 6am feeding, but I'm on for 2am and that's a real hard time to crawl out of bed and change a lamb's diaper.

But it is good. This is fun. We are living an incredible week. I keep asking the Lord what he wants us to learn through all of this. And ultimately, it is just darling to have a little lamb hanging out with us all day long. And the lamb made incredible progress today! If it can continue to make strides each day like it did today, we will be on our way to walking.

He can roll up now and keep his front legs in front of him. That's a huge difference. Every 4 hours he is fed a whole milk/raw egg/heavy cream mix and I give him some serious Physical Therapy. I want him to make it so badly. He has to walk if he is going to get to stick around. A terrible thought, but we are literally doing all we can to help this Little Love. I know we could be setting ourselves up for serious heart break, but we are going to give this guy his very best shot to survive.

So that's the update! I know I've been over-blogging but I just wanted to be caught up to real time so badly so that I can share each day how he's doing. And now I've done it! I'll feed him here at 10pm and go hit the hay until it's time to feed him again.