The story of Ollie, the orphaned lamb

  April 21, 2002THANK YOU GATEWAY!

This morning twins were born in a barn in Rome, NY. Unfortunately, for one, life just wasn't exciting enough.  She decided to tour the town. 

It wasn't long before she forgot the way home unfortunately and those nagging pains in the stomach made her wonder how smart a decision she had made as she lay on the cold concrete all alone. Then the miracle happened. 

By luck the barn maintenance worker arrived. It took all of Ollie's energy to yell "I'm Here, I'm HERE!" but that was all she needed to say. The worker quickly snatched her up from the cold concrete and began knocking on doors hoping someone would claim the little one without a mother to look after here. Politely, all the neighbour's claimed though they didn't know her until one. "Persona Non Grata" she said indignantly and turned away. 

Ollie had said she was a twin and before he was asked to leave pdq, he saw a mirror image of Ollie standing behind the lady. Appeals were made, but the lady refused to be moved by them. She claimed she had one daughter only and this was not it! Stronger appeals were made but to no
avail.  Not knowing what more could be done, the maintenance man and his old grey haired helper decided to do what they could to help poor Ollie. They took her home and fed her, after which she promptly fell asleep. 
She knew that she made a mistake of touring the town alone, but was now just extremely thankful to the strangers for their kindness and the warmth of her own room. Ollie fell asleep for the first time in hours in a warm place and a full belly knowing she could never go home again. 

As she drifted away to dreams of warm meadows she thought she heard voices. Voices that didn't make a lot of sense to her. One said "you want ME to get up at 3AM to feed her? YOU are nuts!!!" Then solitude kicked in again for a time. 

The last thing she remembers is "okay..I'll make you a deal.....I feeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddd....then you feeeeeeeeeeed...then I'll feee....eeed....then you will fee..ed...er...is this my turn or your?....when do you think she can eat?...."errr"...."is this my time or yours?"

Reporter Robin Baker
On the farm at the Smith's in Rome NY

<more photos of Ollie here>