Ann Leary, author of The Good House » sheep

Clever Bitches and Cheeky Baa-studs

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:32:16 +0000

In my book, An Innocent, A Broad, I wrote about a our experience having our first baby, in London, by accident. In one of the chapters, I discussed the fact that in 1990, there were only 4 channels available to most British viewers: BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4. It didn’t matter to me that there were not hundreds of satellite channels available then because a) I was nursing an infant every two hours and would have watched programs about paint drying if that’s all they had and b) British television is, and always has been, far superior to what America has to offer, in my opinion. Here’s a little excerpt from my book in which I discuss some of my favorite shows from that long hot summer.

It was almost impossible to turn on the TV that summer and not see a program about small woodland creatures on one of those four channels. Unlike American nature programs, which typically featured sleek tigers and voracious lions, these British documentaries usually centered on voles, weasels and the ever-popular badger. Badger shows ran constantly. In the morning I would nurse Jack while watching badgers mate. Later, Denis would tune into another channel to find a feature about the nesting habits of badgers. Badgers eating, sleeping, yawning – apparently there was no end to the British appetite for information about these creatures. Although I never saw it, Denis claimed that in the early morning hours, when most programming was over, one channel showed oddly engrossing footage of wild badgers with pop music playing in the background.

By far our favorite program was “One Man and His Dog“. This was a televised sporting event shot in the bucolic British countryside and shown once a week to millions of viewers. Each competitor – always a tweedy old farmer – and his very enthusiastic dog would approach a small flock of sheep that were grazing in a meadow. The man would stare at the sheep. The dog, poised for action, would stare at the sheep, then the man, then the sheep, then the man, the sheep, the man until finally, the man nodded and grunted and the dog would be off like a low-flying missile headed straight for the sheep. The man would whistle and the dog would drop to the ground. Another whistle and the dog would crawl along to the left of the sheep or to the right. The dog did all the work, the man stood in one place and whistled orders and the announcer, in hushed tones, would say things like, “Let’s see if Jip can steer them ’round that gate ….oh no! She’s lost one! Horrigan must be terribly disappointed with that. She’s been a rather unreliable bitch throughout her career, really.”

Today, somebody emailed me this YouTube video about some very creative shepherds – both human and canine.

Enjoy!

Here’s a link. On my computer the video is not full-size:

Year in Review

Ann Leary — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:27:03 +0000

Tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of my blog. Today I have decided to do a little retrospective of the year, in photos. As those who have been with me from day one might recall, I didn’t know how to load photos onto the blog in the beginning, so I wrote these rather long-winded entries and was in danger of running out of stuff to write about by week two. Thankfully, I learned how to load the photos and the blog has survived! Here are some of my favorite blog moments in pictures.

Thanks to all of you who read, comment or email me each day. I had no intention of starting a blog last year. I only did it at the suggestion of my publisher. Now I love to blog and have come to think of many of my readers as friends Keep those comments coming. XO Ann

May 12

May 22

May 23

June 30

August 4

Also August

September 12

September 19

September 22

September 22

October 25

November 2

November 2

December 6

Finally, two great souls who are missed:

May 4

October 7

Run, Joe, Run

Ann Leary — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:03:24 +0000

Thanks to Su, a blog reader, I have learned that the fugitive German Shepherd show I mentioned in my last post wasn’t just a figment of my dog-obsessed imagination. It was a show called, Run, Joe, Run
Here’s the title sequence. I love it. It’s the 6 Million Dollar Man meets The Fugitive meets Lassie

Now I’m wondering if we can create a TV series about the fugitive ewe. Run, Fat-Ass, Run, we could call it. She could have been trained to do some Bourne Ultimatum kind of spy work by the US Government, and now that she’s back in the US, from Iraq, she’s been wrongly accused of terrorist acts against large livestock. She can kill you with her bare hoof, yet she doesn’t even know her name.
I’m going to pitch it to Animal Planet.

This Just In

Ann Leary — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:08:03 +0000

My horses have recovered from last Sunday’s sheep attack. I, on the other hand, am still thinking I’m seeing sheep out of the corner of my eye, every time I walk up to the barn. So I actually did a google search for reports about sightings of the sheep in our area and came across this article in the Easton Courier. It’s about a sheep that ran away from its Easton home four months ago. Easton is about a half hour drive from here. Here’s Queenie the missing sheep:

And here’s our attack sheep:

I think it’s Queenie with a new hairdo. I’ve emailed the owner.

But why did Queenie run away? Was it some kind of post-partum psychosis following the birth of Sadie?

This whole incident made me recall a favorite show from my childhood, that I haven’t thought about in years. It was a Saturday morning show about a German Shepherd that had been in Vietnam and had all sorts of tactical and battleground training and experience. Now the dog was back in the US and had been falsely accused of some crime and was always just a step ahead of the law. It was like The Fugitive, but he was a dog. Anyway, every episode, he came across somebody in a bad situation and he used his military training to help. The dog would see somebody pull out a gun to rob a store. Then there would be a close-up of the dog’s beautiful brown eyes. Then the dog would have a ‘nam flashback! I’m not kidding. The dog would recall his trainer telling him to attack a viet cong guy, then we’d flash forward and the dog would attack the robber. The dog also helped lost children, blind people, everyone. And he and his beloved trainer were always trying to find each other but every episode was a near miss.

Now, my question is, does anybody else remember this show, and if you do, what was it called?

Ewe Better Beware

Ann Leary — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:29:21 +0000

Our neighbors Steve and Diana Hochmuth have just emailed me these horrifying photos they took of the attack sheep which apparently decided to include them in its path of terror through Roxbury on Sunday. Here it is in their yard:

And here it is, on its stalking mission to who knows where. Your house could be next!

Can nothing stop it?

People of Connecticut, heed my warning. Keep your livestock inside and your firearms handy. I have two horses who have the worst cast of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome my vet has ever seen. One of them has bandages on both hind legs. The other is covered in stitches. And this lone bandit gets to trot down the middle of the road as if she’s above the law?

Not on my watch.

I’ve got two words for you, Ewe: Shepherd’s Pie. That’s right. So you just keep walking, Sheepy. Trot your mutton butt outta town. I’m onto ewe.