Just a few days after Christmas...Matthew, Jess and my mum were still visiting us. Johan had already retired for the night and the rest of us were playing a board game. I think it was Scrabble, but I'm not sure. We were having loads of fun as we usually do when playing games, trying hard to be quiet so we didn't wake Johan...suddenly we became aware that there were sheep bleating. I recognized it to be one of the newer lambs and for a while we ignored it because sometimes if they become separated from their mother they carry on bleating until they have found her. We continued to play and the sheep continued to bleat, until it became both annoying and concerning. It wasn't usual for them to make any noise at night time, so I thought I would go and investigate. Matthew said he would go with me to have a look. I turned on the back outside spot light which shines very far...past the birds, past the pigs and right to the back of our plot where the sheep were kept at night. Matthew and I then went out, torch in hand, walking round all the outbuildings until we reached the top camp. I shone the torch into the camp, first under the shelter, where I saw the offending lamb together with another sheep...then I shone it further back and saw the rest of the flock standing further afield and closer to the boundary fence. Everything looked alright and while we were there shining the torch on them, they were all quiet. Matthew and I turned and left to go back into the house and to sleep.
The next morning when we woke, the sheep were all gone, bar two which were on the other side of the fence in our neighbour, Belinda's property.....the police were called as well as the stock theft unit but we never got any of them back. I could kick myself for not being more observant the night before and when thinking back there were a number of things that I should have noticed and questioned and in all probability woken Johan up about. Firstly, the fact that the lamb and one other sheep were alone under the shelter and not together with the others was unusual as sheep normally huddle together. Secondly, sheep don't stand and sleep, they usually lie down and all of them were standing. Thirdly, it wasn't usual that our flock were so far away from the gate and the shelter and as close to the boundary fence as they were that night. Not much to go on maybe, but in retrospect it was a lot.
We realized that in all probability when Matthew and I were outside shining the torch, the thieves were already there and had been busy all the while and that is why the sheep were so unsettled. Putting on the spot light was a stupid thing to do when all I had wanted to do was shine light as far back as I could, but in reality I tipped off the thieves that something was up...when the spot light was put on they would have hidden behind the huge pile of felled trees lying in the corner of the camp. It was around these trees that a makeshift camp had been made where the sheep were then herded and through the back fence between us and Belinda. They were taken all the way through Belinda's plot and through her front fence before being herded along the road and then being picked up...or so the police and the stock theft unit reckoned.
As I said, I miss our sheep but I won't replace them, we don't have the money and we worked out that we must have lost close to R 40 000 in sheep....and why get more that can just as easily be stolen!!!!!!
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