Saying Goodbye

Muffy, the day she came to live at the ranch.

Yesterday our big, wooly, old friend, Muffy, passed away from what appeared to be a sudden heart attack. She had an eating disorder which I believe resulted in not having enough to eat where she was prior to her coming to live at the ranch. She LOVED to eat. And she overate whenever she could. She was overweight, though after looking at pictures of other Tunis sheep, maybe she wasn't that much over as they look like hefty creatures compared to our thin, graceful Blackbellies. I always figured she'd die from a heart attack, so I wasn't that surprised that she did.

At least we were there when it happened. I held her head up and comforted her until the end. It's about all I could do. I examined her teeth to try to figure out how old she might have been. She had all eight bottom teeth, and judging from one of my sheep raising books and the how long and very loose the teeth were, she was a bit of a geriatric sheep. Sheep life expectancy varies depending on the breed. I could not find a listing for Tunis. The average is 10-12 years though some breeds go much longer. We had Muffy about three years and I believe the man who owned her prior had her for about five. I don't know how old she was when he got her but he had mentioned she was pregnant then. She had some issues with her legs and my guess it was a bit of arthritis. A while back she had caught her hoof in a pallet and sprained it, but had been recovering nicely and her limp was hardly noticable of late.

The whole family helped to bury her. She was laid to rest next to Gucci and Princess.