Mambo No 5

Mambo no 5 came to us at a few months old. A couple whose house backed onto

the fields noticed Mambo was always on her own and would be calling for her mum

and the rest of the flock, but they ignored her. When they moved around the field,

she was very disorientated and never followed them. They spoke to the farmer who

told them she was born blind; they couldn’t bear the thought of her left on her own

crying so they asked him that if they found her a home could they buy her off him, he

agreed and they then approached us.

We went to see her and even though we knew it would be difficult with a blind lamb

we knew instantly that she was coming home with us.

I had the bright idea to put a bell on one of our other sheep so that Mambo could

follow the sound and amazingly it worked a treat. It didn’t take long for her to map

out the fields in her head and if she wasn’t sure one shout and another sheep would

come to her aid.

It has been truly wonderful to see all the animals being very gentle and calm around

her, considering she shares the fields with the goats, donkeys, alpacas, pony and

other sheep, she has coped far better than we could have hoped for.

If you saw her you would never know that she is completely blind , the reason she is

called Mambo no 5 is because she had the number 5 marked on her when she was

born and we kept thinking of the song and it stuck.