Naked Lambition

Its natural for a mother to want the best for her child even when shes a he and its a sheep.

- Greg Dixon

It takes a village to raise a child. Yet it’s taken only me to raise Xanthe, my first lamb, who I am hoping will grow up to be the greatest sheep who’s ever lived.

Obviously, as a mother, I must be amazing, but not nearly as amazing as Xanthe. She is both beautiful and smart, and very clean. Mostly. If I haven’t managed to train her out of you-know-what-ing in the garage pen she shares with Michele’s lamb, Elizabeth Jane, it’s only because Xanthe and I are fighting thousands of years of genetic predisposition for sheep to do their business wherever they happen to be standing. We’ll keep trying; but Rome wasn’t built in a garage in the Wairarapa in eight weeks.

Still, Xanthe has the finest of tails, a good straight back, a playful nature and soulful eyes. She is already enormous – I can now barely lift her – and I’m certain she will become, when the time comes, Miles the sheep farmer’s most prized milking sheep.