Mystery Ram

How come things usually happen when you're not at home? Not always, but it's like a law or something. Well, I got a phone call when I was out picking up supplies at the local store. "Your ram is out, he's in the street." Egads! I immediately head back home, not wasting a second. All the time I'm hoping that E-Ram doesn't attack anyone, get hit by a car, get into my neighbor's garden. How the heck did he get out? 

Pulling up to my gate, here's what I saw. It was out in the street and I startled it, resulting in it making an impressive leap over my rock wall. 

Mr. Mystery Ram. Not mine, but oh what a handsome fella. I don't recognize him. He's in good shape, so he's not wild. 

Stacy, the ewe flock leader, spied him as I pulled in with the truck. She was the first to investigate. "A Real Man!" was written all over her body language. Before long all the ewes noticed him.....and he noticed them.....and E-Ram noticed the mystery ram. Things got complicated in a hurry. 

While I was busy opening and closing the gate, moving the truck, getting a bucket of grain, the two rams were doing some serious head butting. Bam. Bam! How they can survive that is astounding. The two of them back up until there is about 50 feet between them then rush right towards one another, hitting head on. The sound is loud, hollowish sounding, and makes your guts cringe. The force could easily break a person's back, hip, or leg. Or if a ram got your head, your skull would be smashed like a broken egg. But rams somehow survive this assault. No wonder rams have such big testicles because surely they don't have brains inside their skulls, which must be solid bone! Well, not really, but it makes one wonder. 

Now what to do? Can't leave these two rams together. E-Ram is elderly and I don't want the mystery ram to kill him. So I entice the ewes to the back pasture with a bucket of grain. Mystery ram follows the girls. Yup no brains, all testosterone. I shut the gate before E-Ram can follow....I distracted him with a pile of grain on the ground. Ok. Both rams separated. Mystery ram gets the company of the girls tonight. E-Ram is more interested in the grain for now. 

Since this ram obviously isn't wild, I'll see if I can find his owner. Perhaps he escaped from a neighbor. There is always the possibility that someone kicked him out of their pickup truck, ditching him. The end of our road is notorious for being a spot to abandon animals. Besides the constant flow of abandoned cats and dogs, ditched chickens and roosters are right up there on the list. But there have been goats, including a purebred Nigerian nanny my neighbor ended up keeping, and assorted sheep. A fairly docile cow appeared once and nobody knew where it had come from, most likely a discarded animal, though an usual one. And once two scrawny horses ended up at the end of the road. Again, no one knew where they came from. None of these animals have ever been claimed. What a way to get rid of an unwanted animal, especially a cow or horse! Haven't these people thought about using Craigslist? ....or a note posted on a local bulletin board? I guess that rams have more brain cells than those people!