The "notorious" Speckles

I've written about Speckles before; the sheep one foot shy from being slaughtered. Gosh, I wish I had some pictures of this story I'm about to tell, because I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I received Speckles from a friend, because Speckles was terrorizing her dogs. Speckles did well all winter long out in the desert with my other sheep. He would turn and face your dog if he felt threatened or if your dog didn't leave adequate space driving him. I had no problem with that. I even loaned him out to an AHBA ranch trial. He did fine, other than my friend who gave him to me got him in her group of sheep. He recognized her dog and...yep....turned on the dog in the cross drive out in the field. I had to "smile." Speckles is no dummy, just a real oddball.

While I was gone to a trial, Wayne let the sheep out to graze with Kilt watching the small flock. I guess Speckles didn't want to go back to the pen. I will never know what happened, but if Kilt had a hard time with Speckles, he must have really put on a show. I really can't have any sheep like that with my husband caring for them when I'm gone.

Then, I purchased some lambs and all of the adult sheep head butted the lambs. Mean California sheep. LOL Speckles was the worst of the head butters. Time for Speckles to go. I gave Speckles to Terry who owns Task Farms where I work my dogs.

I about busted a gut the other day while my husband and I were over there relocating the pen. Terry was bringing a large flock of sheep from one ranch to another on his ATV with one of his dogs. There was this one sheep lagging way behind terrorizing his dog. You guessed it....it was the "notorious" Speckles. When Terry got the flock through the gate he yelled, "Suzanne, this sheep is headed for slaughter."

I was busy working my dogs when I noticed he put all 30-40 sheep in a pen. Speckles wasn't among the flock. That's when I noticed Speckles. My God...where was my camera? I almost busted a gut laughing. Speckles was inside the barn where the dogs are kenneled in chain link runs taking on the dogs in the kennels by himself. Speckles was antagonizing the dogs in the kennel runs. What a great U-tube movie that would have made!

Anyway, Terry was fit to be tied, so I took Kilt out, got 4 other sheep and took the sheep to the backside of the barn. Kilt brought the sheep up through the center aisle passing all the dog kennels picking up Speckles on the way. Kilt put Speckles and the other 4 sheep back into the pen with the rest of the flock.

I'm going to miss Speckles. He probably is going to make some TOUGH lamb chops!