2021-06-06

Shrek the New Zealand sheep passed in 2011

    Shrek prior to shering

I don't have a lot of experience with sheep. When I was younger I became attached to a goat given to my daddy upon his retirement by his best friend. It was a horned nanny named 'Gem' and I encountered this goat when it was quite young.

Gem didn't know that she wasn't a human child. She would play with the nephews and nieces whom mama would watch during the day and would leap and frolic with them as though she was just another niece.

Shrek being sheared

    
My daddy never understood the pain I went through when he took the goat to market and sold her. I understood that getting caught in the fence continually was problematic. But then there was the issue of the goat identifying itself as a family member and having that reciprocity from me made the issue of taking Gem to the market more problematic for me personally.

While I had formed an emotional attachment to the animal, Daddy just saw her as another goat.

On this day in 2011 Shrek, a 16 year old castrated male Merino sheep from South Island, New Zealand passed away.

Born in 1994, his claim to fame was remaining unsheared for 6 years and subsequently grew a gigantic fleece.

    Shrek after shearing wearing a blanket



Typically Merino sheep are caught and sheared annually.

When he was finally caught he was not recognized by his owner.

He looked like some biblical creature.

John Perriam, Shrek’s owner commenting on his discovery after 6 years of growing wool.

It would appear that good grooming goes beyond the human realm into those of sheeples.