Funny Sight

Miss Maya

A few days ago, I looked out and saw something that I am not too sure I have seen before. The sheep had segregated themselves by color. The three black ewes were all grazing together up on the rocky ledge, the three white sheep (two ewes and Obed the wether) were grazing about 50 feet away, all together. Maya, who's grown into a beautiful oatmeal color like Callie, was off on her own, somewhere in the middle of the two groups. This configuration was pretty funny to observe, and I found myself standing there, watching, waiting to see how long they would stay apart from one another. It was maybe five minutes...then, one of the black ewe lambs bounded over to the others and joined right in.
It made me wonder about how intentional the pattern might have been, or whether they are even able to tell the difference between a black sheep and a white sheep and an oatmeal colored sheep. When a ewe gives birth to twins and one is white and the other black, she treats them equally and without any apparent favoritism to either one. Again, I am struck by the parallels to our own human interactions.
This brings back fond memories of reading The Color of Water... and it simply makes me smile to think that we actually have so much in common with these wooly beasts.

PS - Later on that evening, the same thing happened ... the three black sheep were all together just outside the barn doors, the three white ones were about 35 feet away, and Maya was the third point of the triangle, oatmeal colored apex. Very funny that it happened again. Maybe it's happened a lot before and I just had never noticed it.