My friends have just acquired a new Dorpa sheep from the Murrumbateman Field Days. The sheep is a whether (this means that it has been pruned) so it will employed as a pet to eat the grass on their quarter acre block in a country town.

Yesterday we went through various names such as Amos, Daphne Dorpa and I suggested Dick the Dorpa - no make that Dickless Dorpa I said; more suited to his "whethered" state. While we all thought "Dickless" very amusing my suggestion was vetoed as nobody fancied - should the Dorpa escape - wandering through Bowning calling out for Dickless. Imagine "Here Dickless, Come here Dickless!" I had to agree it was a bit offputting. So they have now decided on "Victa" after the great Australian invention - the lawn mower.

This then in fact, caused me to remember a funny story about my father. Seems that when he bought his medical practice it was in Footscray in Victoria  located right next to an abbatoir, and also quite near a munitions factory. My father bought his surgery just before WWII and subsequently he had to treat quite a high number of patients from both these place of work; unfortunately both these places of employment were high risk and the accident rate reflected this.

On one particular afternoon an old sheep luckily escaped the killing fields at the local abbatoir and wandered into his surgery. Being a pragmatic person, he decided that the sheep having thawted his fate, deserved not to die, well not on that day anyway!, So he took her home to enjoy some small period of retirement, eating the grass on his suburban block. Now this was pre-me, in the 1940's so you can well imagine the raised eyebrows and tooting of horns as he and his new friend progressed through the many traffic lights between Footscray and North Balwyn - his new friend proudly sitting up in the front passenger seat enjoying the view from that window!

The sheep progressed well, was both curious and friendly and got to the point where sometimes she entered the house to check out what was happening in the big, old kitchen. I understand that one day my mother was lighting the gas stove, bending down quite low, peering right into the oven to get the job done. Unbeknownst to her the sheep wandered in and seeing this delightfully round posterior sticking up in the air, butted her right into the oven - much noisy, unhappiness ensued - the upshot being that my father was in trouble as was the sheep, which was then banished to the tennis courts where it could be seen to munch on the grass, and generally enjoying it's peaceful existence.

It was a Winter's morning not long after the stove experience and my mother was again gazing out the kitchen window and she noticed that the sheep had propped itself up against the tennis court net and indeed was not moving. At all. Quite rigid in fact.

A closer inspection was called for and my father's woolly friend was then pronounced dead of old age. Vale old friend. The emphasis of the word "old" being placed on the age of the sheep rather than the length of their friendship!

As sad as my father was about the loss of his sheep; this did not stop him from bringing home more sheep and indeed the odd goat!

copyright: a.a.gallagher 2008

An Update To The Tales of Victa The Pet Dorpa Sheep

Well it seems that Victa is growing nicely but he appears to have a small problem - he thinks he is a dog. His house mates are two little daschunds named Kaiser and Dash. They did their bit when he first arrived by chasing him around and around the garden until their owner managed to put a full stop to that... so now he sleeps on the front verandah to get out of the weather, trots through the house following the dogs - just a quick in and out and he never leaves small gifts behind for his owners to clean up, so it's all good - he even curls up and sleeps with the Kaiser and Dash when they take the sun outside.

But it seems his best trick is to escape through the back fence to go find plants and fruit trees to prune! it would appear that his tastes buds rejoice to his most energetic, enthusiastic mastication of new fruit tree leaves that appear magically in front of him and at his very height. The funny thing is that when Victa has a choice between staying home to eat the grass -, in fact do the job he was bought for, or escaping through the back fence to forage for fruit tree leaves the leaves always win. Really he has most refined taste buds. But it can be said in all honesty that he is really good at pruning these leaves. He does it so evenly, it is as if he uses a tape measure! I have heard that he has pruned quite a number of trees in the village gardens and also in the streets but no one has actually complained - yet. However as he does such a good job and the tree bases look so neat, maybe he is saving some people some work. I wonder if we will find in the near future that he just loves fresh fruit straight off the tree also......

Victa is enjoying a certain notoriety, everyone in the village knows his name now so when he escapes people can be heard calling for him to return home - funny thing he also knows his name and answers with a a baa; meaning "I heard but I 'm not coming yet still got a few leaves to prune - gotta do a good job" - or "these leaves are the best, will come when I've finished eating everyone that I can physically reach!!!"

to be continued.......

copyright: a.a.gallagher 2008

On the sheep's back

May 09, 2005

DECORATED: Graeme and Anne Budd of Coutts Crossing with their champion Dorpas and the ribbons they won at the breed national ti

By TOBY WALKER

WHEN Graeme and Anne Budd moved on to a small rural property at Coutts Crossing two years ago they were looking for a way to keep livestock without having the added burden of labour costs.

Enter South Africa's popular export, Dorpa sheep, which were first introduced to Australia in 1996.

The Budd's figured Dorpa would be ideal -- and potentially profitable -- because it is a breed of sheep that could shed its wool naturally, much like a dog or cat sheds hair.

Without the need to think about shearing costs and issues like mulesing usually associated with other breeds, the Budds assumed they were on to a winner.

And last weekend that assumption proved correct when they took several awards for their Coutts Crossing-bred Dorpa sheep at the National Dorpa Championships in Dubbo.

Up against around 150 entries, the couple's ewes took home the blue ribbons with two first places and a second in different categories, the win vindicating their confidence in the breed.

"There was a lot of people there who had a lot of sheep to choose from so we were thrilled to win considering we hadn't been breeding them that long," Mr Budd said.

According to Mr Budd, the Dorpa breed has become highly sought by larger sheep farmers in the State's west with demand for rams outstripping supply.

A situation that has served to attach a level of prestige to the breed -- with a price to match.

Mr Budd said he recently saw a ram being sold for commercial use at a Grays End sale yard for $3000.