Sophie the sheep was an orphaned lamb that grew up to be the only sheep on the ranch. Bottle-fed and people-pampered, she kept the lawn trimmed when tethered to a stake far from flowers, trees and other targets of mischief.
The shy Suffolk placidly munched grass and weeds alike, but deep within her woolly breast, Sophie harboured an inner longing to run free – to pace and plunder Western Canada’s picturesque plains. She combined that desire with infinite optimism that such a thing was possible.
Sophie was tethered every day. On each of those days, and more than once, she would abruptly interrupt her grazing and cock her head, as though listening to an inner voice. Her body would briefly compress, a coiled and woolly spring. Tiny hoofs would dig into the turf.
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Then, Sophie would sprint at seemingly supersonic speed, and SPROING! be brought up short at the end of the rope.
Never did she escape in this way, and never did she lose her hope that this time, this place and this sprint would be her passage to freedom.
Just such a sheep might Shrek have been. The ram caught media attention at the end of April when he was captured after six years on the lam. A New Zealand merino, Shrek was reported by Associated Press to have been hiding and living in mountain caves after escaping his domestic flock.
Shrek’s fleece weighed an amazing 27.5 kilograms, some of it matted and chunky, and was shorn from him in front of a live television audience.
He was reported to be a bit unsteady after the fleecing, which coincidentally occurred at about the same time as the Canadian income tax filing deadline, thereby gaining the sheep a sizable sympathetic and similarly fleeced audience.
Unlike many Canadians, however, Shrek was reported to adapt quickly to his lighter self. Of course, he was assisted in this effort by a red and blue winter jacket provided to protect him from the cold of New Zealand’s advancing winter. Pity the tipsy shepherd who next comes across him.
So, Shrek found six years of freedom and about 60 minutes of fame because of his foray into the unknown. For sheep, and likely for other species as well, risk-taking has its advantages.
And what of Sophie, you may ask?
The ovine optimist eventually found a home with a flock in the Porcupine Hills where, so far as we know, she was never tethered again.
