We went out into the pasture this morning to find Jake, one of Ma’s twins, the white lambs, was lying in the pasture, stricken and barely alive. Maria and I held Jake, and I had to photograph the emotion I saw, I had to capture it. The donkeys were astonishingly protective of him and gathered around him, Simon kept trying to get him up.

Ma abandoned him and walked away for awhile. Prey animals protect themselves from predators by abandoning the sick and weak in their flock. It is often a sign an animal is dying.

Then I changed gears in my head and went to work. We gave Jake a vitamin booster, a penicillin shot, he took some lamb’s milk from a warmed-up bottle. He opened his eyes briefly, then walked around a bit, he seems disoriented, I believe he ate something that poisoned him or caught some kind of a fever. He collapsed in a corner, we will give him more milk if we can, make him as comfortable as we can.

I will share the process with you as always, it is important to share the real lives of real animals before we forget what they are like. The horses have awakened me to the importance of this, if the people in New York understood what the real lives of animals are like, in nature and the natural world, the horses and the people who care for them would not be in peril.

We are not calling the vet, we will do what we can, and let nature take it’s course. Maria was strong about it, emotional but not stricken herself. She has come to understand that animals do not live in a no-kill world, they do not live in paradise. More painful for me, perhaps, I am so drawn to these two, they seem so special and spiritual to me. I hope Jake pulls through.