Daisy

• Miranda Mcgufficke, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2014

Imagine…. Pets too domesticated to go back to their paddocks.

Well… let me tell you a story.

Besides being a Merino ram breeding enterprise, my sisters and I still find time to foster orphan lambs.

Some stay overnight, some are fostered out and well… some stay a while.

Once upon a time, my sister, Miranda, found a lamb… on a cold August day in 2006. She called it Daisy.

Daisy was going nowhere, this was the life for her… bottles of milk, sleeping inside (when it was freezing out), taken for walks in the pram and well kept.

Daisy had her own unique personality and became far too domesticated to return to the ‘real’ world. Thus Daisy was given free range of mum’s garden (not that mum was totally impressed).

Daisy had to be moved, but not too far, just next door to a small paddock which has become home to all our poddy lambs over time.

Daisy was a larrikin though, she somehow managed to find any hole and escape – she just liked to live free range. Daisy would chase my sisters and me to the bus stop on our bikes and we had to make sure we got enough distance in front to stop and hop off our bikes before she collided with us.

She would hide behind the trees and chase mum’s care down the drive like a dog..

One day Daisy got inside, Dad found her; she panicked and left a pile of manure on the lounge room floor. It was so funny.

Daisy soon grew too big and too woolly to fit through the fence and this was the time Dad decided Daisy needed to be introduced to a ram. Well Daisy was not having any part of this and would certainly not socialise with the ram. But…. One day a miracle happened, no in fact, two miracles happened. Daisy had twins, Louie and Bugsy and was actually an amazing and devoted mother.

Her boys liked to play a bit rough though as they grew bigger, so you had to be careful when playing hide and seek with the poddy lambs so they did not butt you.

Daisy was an amazing poddy lamb who grew up with my sisters and me and had been taken good care of by Miranda. Poor Daisy succumbed to arthritis and it was hard for her to get around… unfortunately Daisy died in 2011 and this was a very sad time for all of us, especially Miranda.

However…..Daisy’s memory is well and truly alive and we all reminisce about her antics and personality. I don’t think we have had quite another ‘Daisy’ in the poddy lambs that have followed…..