If I Won the Lottery

I used to work in Petaluma CA and commute along Lakeville Highway every day. Lakeville is very pretty with vineyards and horse farms, the miniature horses garner a lot of attention. One the thing I loved was the thousands of lambs frolicking in the fields every spring. Frolicking is honestly the only word that accurately captures the joyful action of those fluffy little scamps.

My carpool buddy and I once came up with a daring plan to capture one and take it home to cuddle. Our plan went like this "I'll stop the car, you jump out grab a lamb and when you jump back in the car I'll peel out". Sadly we never put this plan in to action.

One year there was this adorable little black lamb on one of the small farms that I just fell in love with. Every day I would see him (her?) and it would make me feel that the world wasn't such a bad place to live after all. This made me wonder why although I occasionally saw black lambs I almost never say black sheep. I did a bit of research and found out to my horror that a lot of black lambs become lamb chops. Not MY lamb though it was a well loved pet. This is what I tell myself despite the fact that I no longer see it.

Apparently the issue is that they can't die the black wool so it's just easier to take the sheep out of the gene pool. There is a specialized market for black wool (it never fades) and some farmers will sell their black lambs/sheep to farms that specialize in black sheep. Others just name the animal dinner and move on.

Here's where my lottery winnings come in to play. If I was rich, I mean really rich, the kind where you can set up your own charities, I'd start a black sheep rescue farm or ranch or whatever. Obviously I'd have to hire a staff to take care of the animals because I have no clue what goes in to raising sheep. I'd put adds in Modern Sheppard or whatever magazines sheep farmers read offering to buy any black lambs they wind up with or trade if my black sheep produced white lambs (I'm not sure how that works). I would put an end to black sheep discrimination. In my world being the black sheep of the family would be a good thing.

Disclaimer: I found this image on the web. If I knew who it belonged to I'd ask permission and give them credit. Also if you google black sheep turns out I'm not the only person who loves these fluffy little cuties.