I want to say at the outset of this post that I never claim to know what is going on in the minds of animals, they do not have our emotions, our language or vocabulary. We are always projecting our ideas and feelings onto them, and we really don’t know what they are doing or thinking. That said, I often witness on the farm things that touch me, that cause me to pay special attention, that touch my hear and I am not always sure what is happening.

This afternoon, when I realized how ill she was, I let Ma out her stall to that she wouldn’t further injure herself banging into the gate. Liam, who was outside of the pole barn, walked inside, went straight to Ma and stood looking her, they almost touched noses. Suzy, who does not let Liam near the other sheep, stood back. Ma looked at Liam for what seemed to me a long time – perhaps a minute, long for a sheep to make eye contact.

I really don’t know why Liam did this, he might have been curious, perhaps he smelled an illness or even heard the lambs inside of her stomach. Perhaps he was comforting her. We will all fill the story in, in our own way, for our own reasons. It was certainly a connection that caught me eye. I am always glad to have a camera nearby, I never regret it.

You could think of it as a mystical parable, as one of those things animals do that are beyond our consciousness and understanding. Or there could be a very simple, even mundane explanation. I don’t claim to know.