Tess was Maria’s first sheep, and she was the most affectionate and gentle, I am sorry to see Maria lose one of the sheep she loves, and impressed by her clear-headedness, compassion and strength. Dr. Lauren Marsh of the Granville Large Animal Veterinary Service came bye around 8:30 this morning, examined Tess, tried to drain the gas and fluids in her swollen stomach, and then we discovered massive internal bleeding – a vascular incident, she said – and we all agreed to end Tess’s suffering then and there.

Tess died quickly and quickly, Maria holding her head. We called the Granville service this morning because we wanted to make sure we hadn’t overlooked anything in our treatment of Tess, and should it become necessary, we know that trained vets can euthanize an animal in the quickest and most painless ways, and that is what happened.

Tess came to Bedlam Farm about two years ago, she suffered from footrot there, but was always easy around us and the dogs. Maria often visited with her, talked to her, Tess loved to have her back scratched. We both feel her loss more than most sheep.

We tried draining Tess’s stomach this morning, injecting her with some needles to see if there was a gas or other blockage, and we will never know precisely what called the bleeding and vascular damage, sheep are tough to diagnose and succumb easily to many things. I have seen a number of them die in my time with them. We are getting a breeding ram in a few weeks, and we will have lambs in the Spring.

We appreciated Dr. Marsh’s visit very much, she told us we had covered every base and completely supported the decision to euthanize Tess. Red seemed visibly affected, he stayed close by Tess, and there was the most beautiful scene after Tess’s death when the donkeys came over and circled her body and each one touched their noses to her. Animals sense death, and while I do not see them grieving, it is clear they are aware of it, they seem to seek closure through smell – Red touched the body also.

Another chapter in the beautiful and wondrous sage of our life with animals. It makes sense Tess’s problem was vascular, it could have even been a stroke, although her stomach was badly swollen and distended. I took some photos and will put up an album shortly, I am grateful to be able to record in images the nature of life here, and to share it with you.

I am struck by how much Maria has grown, she comfortably and gracefully combines a strong and very touch character with great mercy, feeling and compassion. I know that Tess is a genuine loss to her, and I also know she will be making quilts and potholders before lunch. The farm is a great teacher, death is as much a part of life as the sun rising, you take one with the other, you must understand both.