Our beloved Shetland ewe Mona died today.  She was born in April 2005, the daughter of Monette and granddaughter of Babette, my all time favorite sheep.  Here she is at 2 months of age.

Mona in April 2005

Here she is in 2007.

Mona 2007

In 2006 she was bred to Jocko and in 2007 she lambed.  Here she is with her first lamb Moni who we still have.  

Mona and Moni 2007

She was bred to Lewis later that year and had her second set of lambs, Josefina and Katarina, in 2008.  They were gorgeous lambs, and it was difficult selling them.

Mona with Josefina and Katarina in 2008

In addition to gorgeous lambs she always made lovely wool.  Below is her fleece from 2009.

Mona fleece 2009

Bred to Lewis again, in 2009 she had Buster and McFly.  This is a photo of Buster.  He was sold as an intact ram for breeding.

This is Mona later in 2009.

Mona in 2009

Here she is sheared in March 2010.

Mona sheared in 2010

One month later she lambed with Bo and Diddley, again sired by Lewis.  Both were wethered.  Bo was sold to a friend Denise and was renamed Chone.  Diddley is still with us and is our friendliest sheep.

Diddley with Mona

In 2011 she busted into the chicken pen and got into their feed, along with other sheep and goats.  In that episode her half-brother Spike died, but she survived with veterinary treatments.  In retrospect, I think the goats had learned how to open the latch to that pen with led to this catastrophe.  We have a second latch on that pen now to prevent this from happening again.

Acidotic Mona

She stayed in retirement from lambing but still made lovely fleeces for us each year.  Here she is after shearing in 2014 with our Gotland-Finn ewe Moll.

Mona and Moll sheared 2014

She remained feisty in her retirement.  Here she is fighting with Wilma with her son Diddley helping and her ancient uncle Bob staying un-involved.  

Mona and Wilma fighting in 2015

She seemed fine the last time I saw her, but I have not been out in the barn because of my crushed finger.  Tom said she had seemed mopey the last few days, but he gave her some grain which she ate well.  Yesterday she did not eat her grain and today was dead.  She seemed a little thin but not drastically so and not bloated.  Her last check up in November she was fine.  So not sure what happened to her other than winter is hard on older sheep.  Surprisingly though this has been our first sheep death this winter and I had expected more, given how old our flock is now.  But nonetheless this is a sad and somewhat unexpected loss.  I do have her 2016 fleece in the black roving we had made last year.  So I can still appreciate her with that fiber as well as with her offspring, Moni and Diddley.