Having a baby is truly one of the great wonders of life. Being present during a birth means you are present at the most important moment in the lives of many people.
But this moment is just as powerful in the animal world.
And those were the feelings Amy Hill had while waiting for her 10-year-old ewe Dotty to lamb.
Amy owns Snowy River Farms in Nova Scotia, Canada. On the farm, they breed animals without the use of genetically modified crops and make sure their animals are as well taken care of as possible.
Amy loves her animals more than anything, and when one of them is about to give birth, she always guides them through it.
Yes, she is always ready to intervene where help is needed and stays close to her animals.
That’s why she quickly noticed that there were problems when the pregnant ewe Dotty started behaving differently.
Dotty was seriously ill
Among the animals on the farm, Dotty has always held a special place in Amy’s heart, as she was her first ewe.
“She’s the one who made me fall in love with sheep. She is my best friend and means everything to me,” Amy writes in a post on Facebook.
When Amy arrived at the barn one morning, Dotty was lying motionless in the straw and struggling to breathe.
Amy quickly realized it was serious and called the vet.
The vet suspected Dotty had pre-eclampsia and that the lamb in her belly had died.
“The thought that we might have to euthanize her has haunted me for a long time. We gave her a syringe in a last hope that the lamb would come out. Then I checked Dotty multiple times, but nothing happened,” Amy writes.
Four healthy lambs
But just when she thought it was over and was preparing to say goodbye, everything changed.
When she went to her the next day, she saw something moving in the straw.
She counted: “One, two, three……four”.
All of Dotty’s previous pregnancies had resulted in twins. But this time, much to Amy’s surprise, she had been carrying four healthy lambs all along.
“I got chills. I won’t lie, I cried for half an hour when I found them this morning. The relief that my girl is still with us and that she has blessed us with four beautiful lambs (three boys, one girl). It’s overwhelming, in the best way,” Amy writes on Facebook.
