In Loving Memory of Chone

I lost my little black sheep today. He was almost 9 years old.

Though I hadn’t mentioned anything here, Chone had been having a bit of a hard time for the last month or so.
I first noticed that he had lost a tooth back in mid-November.

By early December when I last did hoof trims, he seemed to be too skinny, and his hooves were a mess.
I’d started supplementing his normal diet (just pasture and grass hay) with alfalfa pellets and some oats and a bit of other grain, and also giving him some B-complex and probiotic oral gel.
He ate just a bit of that each morning and evening. And had actually seemed to have perked up over the last couple of weeks, and was even up to snacking on the Christmas tree yesterday. But today I could tell that he was uncomfortable, though he was still on his feet and hanging with the gang.

I made an appointment to take him in to see the vet today at 1pm, and was getting ready to get him haltered for the trip when I found him in the pasture- apparently having just passed. My poor little guy.

So it’s been a hard day.
And I enter 2019 with a heavy heart and a diminished flock.
He was a special sheep- both sweet and feisty- and a good friend.