I finished herding the last few chickens into their coop, shutting the door and turning off their nightlight. Who knew chickens were so afraid of the dark? Rightly so with all the predators out there! I left the coop to check on my flerd of cattle and sheep and locate Abel as he made his run around the pasture. Before I had time to give Fawn a chin scratch, thick thuds erupted from within the flerd.

It’s an unmistakable sound. I knew even without seeing it that it was the sound of two hard headed sheep having a ramming match. This was a new development though. I found Cindy and Larry squaring up. Ears back, chins down. Another thud. Cindy backed up to hit him again, but suddenly Cork joined the fight! Hitting Larry from off to the right, Cork made a soft hit, Larry defending his space. Larry backed off and attempted to find cover from this unfair fight. Cindy gave him a moment, but Cork wanted his turn.

Cork got in another ramming and backed up to go again. The rest of the sheep were watching idly while the cattle ignored all of the scuffling happening nearby. It seemed that the more violent the three of them became, the closer the group huddled together. Cork was about to make another run towards Larry when Yin gently stepped forward in front of him. She rubbed her face against his and pawed at the air. It seemed she had decided Cork should leave this fight to the Matriarch, Cindy. Cork gave in to her request, but rested his head on her back and stared at Larry.

Cindy had given Larry enough of a reprieve and forced him to square up again. Again and again they went head to head, blow after blow. For a little guy, half Cindy’s weight, he sure could hold his own! This was the little scrappy fella who had picked a fight with Sam the Ram though too, so he wasn’t exactly a stranger to unfair fights! And Sam was a good three times his size, four times when he was packing the summer weight.

I watched Cindy and Larry continue to square up while the sheep appeared to grow bored with the two of them. I glanced over at Fawn who was getting awfully close to one of the young ewes, Cindy’s spring lamb, Greta. I lifted an eyebrow with interest and waited. Sure enough, Fawn leaped on Freya’s back, alarming Greta to the point that she galloped away. Fawn fell away and acted like nothing had happened.

With that final hurrah, I decided I’d watched enough of this circus for one night and called Abel to leave. Abel, always excited to move onto the next fun activity, came tearing across the pasture, completely oblivious to the chaos that the fall breeding season had brought into the pasture.