First time posting, hope i'm doing it correctly and I hope this isn't too tardy....
Back in the 80s, on Saturdays I worked for a horse vet and one day he brought in a bum lamb to euthanize and the other vet and I decided that since he was suckling our finger, he had potential. Doc shook his head and asked if I knew what that entailed. I didn't. I've since retired from the govt and become a certified veterinary technician, but I knew NOTHING back then.
So we got a soda bottle with the coolest black nibble that fit over the soda bottle, I got Lambda at the feed store, and I fed Governor Lamb every 4 hours for 6 weeks I think. I was working fulltime but close to home and for the Govt, who was sympathetic. It went: midnight, 4am, 8am (dash to work), (dash home) noon feeding (dash back to work), (dash home) 4pm feeding (dash back to work), 8pm, and we're back to midnight!
My chum, who raised lambs for food, visited right away and told me all the foibles with raising a bum lamb (they give up easily, like to be cuddled, and now you need to find a home for him with other sheep, "he can't come to my place").
The first night I put him in the bathtub with lots of bedding and he started a horrible sound that was nowhere near a BAAAAAAAA, more like a HONKKKKKKK. So I wrapped him up in a big beach towel, brought him to bed, and laid him on my chest, he immediately fell asleep. The husband at the time rolled over and said Is that lamb in our bed? Yes. Oh.Well, ok.
I housed him in our suburban neighborhood in a big dog house I filled with straw and changed every day. He followed me everywhere, including into the house to fix his meals. He learned stairs, how to not eat the hanging house plants if I yelled No Governor at him, and we kept stacks of towels around and when he would assume the telltale position, one of the four of us would yell PEE TOWEL and someone close would toss the towel underneath him in time to catch the stream. The marbles? Well we just dealt with it. rockpaperscissors for who had to clean up each particular scatter of pellets!
He was pure black and hilarious. Doc neutered him down the road (with anesthesia...he begged me not to tell ANYONE he'd done that but I was having none of the other methods), vaccinated him for all the required stuff.
The every 4 hour feedings went to every 6, then eventually to every 8. He lived in his outdoor dog house after about the first couple days. We had a big fenced backyard that he quite liked until he didn't - which manifested with him baaing nonstop if he was alone. He needed a flock.
I found a petting farm near my office in rural Arvada and she and her vet husband took him in. The last time I visited him he was 13 years old. I THINK he knew me.......
