The Black Sheep: Tales of Triumph

By Mat Gardener

Many years ago there was a very good natured sheep who had a very bad start in life.  This is her story as to how she turned her life around; simply by being pleasant and respectful to all those who she encountered during her long journey through life.  Annie’s life got off to a bad start when her mother died whilst giving birth to her.  Annie was also very unfortunate in that when she joined the flock, the leader at that time was a very nasty ewe called Queenie who bullied her mercilessly. 

Besides having to cope with Queenie’s bullying ways, Annie also had to cope with the farmers’ sheepdog called Sabre as well.  He was very similar to Queenie in being another very nasty character.  It was as a result to Sabres’ bad attitude that Annie eventually got her big breaks in life, and so ultimately she had a lot to thank him for.

This particular story aims to show that where we get off to a bad start in life, either because we are bullied, abused or we handicapped in some way during our early years, things can still come good for us in the end.  The things Annie achieved looked impossible during her early days and yet by keeping calm in the face of adversity and in having faith that things will get better she was able to turn her life around. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mat Gardener
• Release date: Apr 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498907972

Mat Gardener

Mat Gardener is a UK based author with a background in complimentary therapies. He also has a very keen interest in the welfare of young people and environmental/conservation issues.  Both of these interests, prompted him to write three series of books aimed at keeping young people safe from physical and emotional harm. The author is  also seeking to highlight conservation issues and social welfare issues such as bullying,  and low self esteem.  Each book in the series is designed to inspire and give hope to young readers/listeners wherever possible, especially where they face difficulties in life. This story is taken from the DREAMTIME book series.  Other titles from this series are also available.

Book preview

Cause for Concern

‘Will it ever stop raining?’ complained the farmer, whist standing out in one of his fields one day.

‘Things have got to get better surely,’ he muttered to himself beneath the threatening grey skies above him.  Indeed he had great cause to be upset; it was proving to be a very difficult year for him.  The weather had been very cruel.

As well as being very wet, that particular spring had also been very cold.  Because of this, the farmer had lost a lot of his newly sown crops.  Many of his precious livestock were lost as a result of the bad weather too. 

Fortunately the farmer was very wise.  He’d been a farmer for a great many years and so he knew this particular year was a very unusual one.  He had a family to support and there was no way he could have endured this amount of bad luck year after year.  Whilst he was naturally very sad about all his losses, the farmer kept telling himself the year could only get better.  He had seen such springs before and he had the sense to look beyond them with a view to better times. 

Orphan Annie

Besides being a difficult year for the farmer, the year had started off badly for his wife too.  Being a very kind lady, she liked all the farm animals very much and she used to take her favourites to local shows and win lots of medals.  The farmer’s wife had a particular liking for rare breeds and kept a great many varieties as pets.  She had chickens, pigs, goats, and sheep, all of which were very valuable and precious to her.  She was particularly fond of her sheep, for she had bred most of them herself, over many years. 

Unfortunately this was a very upsetting time for the farmer’s wife.  She had recently lost her favourite black ewe.  This was not due to the bad spring weather though; it was just one of those things.  Her favourite ewe had been weakened giving birth to her latest lamb and she had never recovered.  Maybe she caught a chill, maybe her body wasn’t strong enough as she was now quite old, but regardless of the reason, she died soon after her latest lamb was born.

As well as being a very sad experience for the farmer’s wife, the death of her favourite black ewe also created something of a problem for her as she had a lot of work to do on the farm.  With it being such a tough year, her husband didn’t have enough money to pay for any extra help at this busy time, unlike he usually did.  Because of this, the farmer’s wife had to spend more of her time helping him.  With her bigger workload, she didn’t see how she would have enough time to look after the newly orphaned lamb as well.

Luckily for the young lamb, because her mother had been so special to her, the farmer’s wife did decide to try and look after her in the end.  She knew it would be difficult because it would mean getting up in the night to feed her, and then going off to work early the next morning.  The farmer’s wife wasn’t put off though; she decided she’d just have to try and manage as best as she could.

Come with me little one; I’ll look after you now, she told the poor orphaned lamb as she carried her towards the farmhouse.  She then carefully put the orphaned lamb in a child’s playpen in the parlour; just as she’d done with so many other orphaned lambs in the past. Because of the way this young lamb came into the world, the farmer’s wife decided to call her Annie, after a character in a show she’d seen.

Annie needed a lot of attention, and at times the farmer’s wife struggled to look after her.  Fortunately she did persevere though and young Annie grew steadily, until eventually she was strong enough and old enough to be weaned and moved outdoors.  This in itself gave the farmer’s wife something of a problem, for she still didn’t have much spare time to look after the young lamb.

By now the farmer was getting slightly annoyed by the amount of time his wife was spending looking after Annie.  Even though it was only a matter of minutes each day, this was still too long as far as the farmer was concerned for he was very busy at that particular time, because he was so short of staff.

‘Surely you can put that young lamb outside now dear.  Can’t you see how stretched I am?  If I’m to get all my work done, I need you to feed the cattle and see to the hens, and you can’t see to them whilst you’re fussing over that lamb, can you?’ he told her firmly.

Knowing that there were a lot of foxes around, the farmer’s wife was worried for Annie’s safety and initially she protested. 

‘I can’t put her outside yet, it would be far too dangerous for her with all the foxes around here wouldn’t it?’ she answered back angrily.

Luckily the farmer came up with a solution that would solve the problem.  Very wisely, he then suggested to his wife that she put Annie together with the other lambs that had been born around the same time, so that she would have company of her own age.  Also more importantly, the farmer pointed out that they would be able to keep an eye on her whilst they were looking after the rest of the other lambs.  Reluctantly, the farmer’s wife agreed to his plan, and so Annie joined the rest of the other new lambs in the nursery paddock. 

Queenie Rules

After a few weeks of living in the nursery paddock, the farmer decided that Annie and the other lambs had put on enough