With face of delight,

my son runs to me –

“I’ve tipped up a sheep!”

he shouted with glee.

My face drops with horror.

Well how could this be?

Am I the worst mother,

has he learned nothing from me?

“Calm down Mother!”

my son reassures.

“It’s not as you think,”

with derision he snorts.

“We walked in a field,

(in the group we were five,)

saw a sheep on its back,

with legs waving at sky.

It soon came apparent,

from what we could see,

that the sheep was so stuck,

‘twas a strange sight to see.

We tried hard to lift her,

but to no avail,

she was fat, wet, and smelly,

the weight of a whale.

Then out of the blue,

an idea did occur,

we spread out our groundsheet,

to roll her on there.

With one mighty tug,

we pulled the sheet up,

and the sheep it did tip,

(the right way up!)

So, off with a wobble,

and a, ‘baa,’ of delight,

the sheep she then trotted –

it was quite a sight!

So you see Mum, it’s true,

the things I did say,

we tipped up a sheep.”

(Thankfully – the right way!)

My Son says, I must point out that this is a true story. Whilst on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition, they encountered a sheep who was stuck on her back.

He told the story exactly as above – I was so relieved to find he had actually saved a sheep by tipping it up the right way, and hadn’t tipped a sheep over the wrong way!

He did give a talk at school about the ‘tipping up a sheep’ encounter, though I did advise him to change the title to ‘Saving a sheep’s life!’ (I was worried the teachers may have had a mild panic attack on seeing the title of his talk!)

©Tipping Sheep (the right way) 2012

By Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Photo Credit

 © Copyright Nigel Mykura and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence