Here is a little miracle: on Boxing Day Shellen broke his leg as he scooted underneath a round bale when the tractor was dropping feed in the pen. Fortunately, he didn't break his neck or back. It made me ill to see his leg broken (literally, I had to put my head between my legs), my first thought was that we would have to put him down, but we are emotionally attached to the big fluff ball. So, we quickly researched the success rate of splinting the leg (yay google!). We discovered that we may have positive results if the leg was broken below the knee. This gave us encouragement to do our best to set the leg. One cowboy friend of ours from the Island told us years ago, "there are only two types of stock: live stock and dead stock, there is no in between". I spoke to another local rancher friend who told me that sheep either have a will to live or not. So, once bound Shellen had to choose to live or not. A couple days later, things did not look well with Shellen's broken leg, it swelled to twice the size and his little bicuspid hoof was splitting apart. So, I took to soaking his leg daily in liniment or Epsom salts. Also, his lethargy told me he was in pain, so I gave him Aspirin. We did this for two weeks. Through much prayer and supplication, the swelling went down. After the six week mark, it was obvious that Shellen's leg was healing as he was putting weight on it and getting around the pen just as quick as before. I decided to take the splint off and see how things looked. Unfortunately, the leg has healed crooked. It is not a pretty sight and I feel bad for him. He will always have a bad limp. It is a physical reminder of my own brokenness and need for a good shepherd...one who will doctor me and heal me...lead me to still waters and green pastures.
