I could not believe how many emails, over 200, I got with suggestions for our new wether’s name. And they were good. I could tell because so many of the same names came from different people. Probably the most popular was freckles or speckles.
And there was really good reasoning too behind so many of them. Along with the names that “just came” to people. All valid, I could imagine any one of them.
But when our friend Janet, who we have never met in person but know from online and the beautiful writing she does on her blog As The Road Wanders, emailed us and asked us to name the sheep after her partner, Scott, who had died that day, we barely had to think about it.
“I don’t know if Scott would want to have a baby lamb named after him,” Janet wrote us, but I have a feeling he would love it. He loved animals as much as do and I think a little lamb named in his honor would be something he could smile about.”
Janet said she tried to push the idea of asking us to name the wether Scott away, but it kept coming back. I know the feeling when a message comes clearly and insists on being acknowledged.
The three new lambs have brought new life to our farm. Constance and Merricat came the day that Joe Biden was declared President-Elect. Jon can’t stop talking about how the lambs have renewed his interest in the sheep and the farm. Neighbors tell us how they love to drive by and see the lambs.
I feel it too, it’s like beginning again.
My first thought when Janet asked us to name the wether after her partner was that it was something we could do for her at a time when there is so little anyone can do to ease her pain. But it’s also a way to remember the beauty of her relationship with Scott. Which from what she had written was a creative and encouraging one. A love that reminds me of the one Jon and I share.
So Scott it is.
Thank you all for your ideas about naming Scott. It was lots of fun to consider each name and read your reasons for suggesting them.
Janet told us that after we let her know that we would name the wether Scott, she looked out her window and saw a cloud in the shape of a lamb and knew it was a message from her partner Scott.
This morning I sat next to Scott and scratched his back while he ate. He’s a sweet lamb, trusting and friendly, he’s easily becoming one of the flock.
Janet wrote about her partner Scott and the lamb Scott on her blog today. You can read it here.
