![\"Sunshine](\"https:\/\/www.stephaniemarohn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/with-dog.jpg\")
<\/a>Sunshine with her comfort dog–she loved him!<\/p><\/div>\n
Sunshine<\/a> was the little black lamb who came to me as what is known as\u00a0a “bummer lamb,” which means the lamb is not nursing, whether because of health compromise,\u00a0rejection by the mother due to\u00a0illness or inadequate\u00a0milk supply, or the mother’s death. Ever since nursing Sunshine\u00a0back to health, I have held the vision of reuniting her family. In the picture to the left, she\u00a0was a week old (you can see her umbilical cord).<\/p>\n Sunshine and Moonglow (photo by Nancy Gallenson)<\/p><\/div>\n First, I purchased Sunshine’s twin, Moonglow.\u00a0I don’t typically buy animals, because I don’t want\u00a0to contribute to\u00a0the livestock industry\u00a0and\u00a0there are plenty of other animals needing a home. This was an unusual case, though. In the interests of bringing the sisters back together, I paid for Moonglow. She helped Sunshine make\u00a0the transition from living in the house to joining\u00a0the other sanctuary sheep, as Moonglow was already versed in flock culture.<\/p>\n Me with the four babies and Merlion the dog (photo by Nancy Gallenson)<\/p><\/div>\n Four months later, I was able to obtain\u00a0Celeste, on my mission to reunite mother and\u00a0daughters. When she arrived, their connection was noted, not by joyous greeting, but by immediate acceptance, complete absence of head butting as boundary setting, and proximity during eating.<\/p>\n Sunshine, Celeste, and Moonglow together again<\/p><\/div>\n It was a week or so before the unrelated sheep would allow Celeste to eat from the same pile as them, but Celeste and her daughters ate together companionably from the first. I had learned from the founding ovine\u00a0members of the sanctuary that mother and child are usually grazing closest together within the flock throughout their lives\u00a0if they are given\u00a0a chance to continue the bond that exists at birth.<\/p>\n Now the Celestial family roams happily together, and\u00a0Celeste is an accepted member of the larger flock. I often find her lying with Fleur-de-Lys, the other mother of twins, like women gravitating toward those with similar life experience.<\/p>\n Celestial family with their new family (photo by Regina Kretschmer)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the completion of the new fence on the lower five acres of the Animal Messenger Sanctuary property, I could welcome another resident: Celeste, the mother of the twins Sunshine and Moonglow. Sunshine was the little black lamb who came … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>