The chase lasted 50 hours and involved the same number of volunteers and concerned passersby -- it just never broke a speed of five miles per hour.
If only Little Bo Peep had been called to the scene.
At various points starting Friday morning and ending midday on Sunday, three young sheep -- the entirety of Dartmouth Organic Farm's nascent livestock program -- were on the lam, evading student caretakers and maintaining generally uncooperative attitudes before their return to the Farm, located in nearby Lyme, N.H.
The escapade began between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Friday, according to Farm intern Meredith Eilers '03. While grazing close to a 12-volt, flexible pulsating electric fence meant to ward off aggressive dogs and coyotes, one of the sheep's heads became stuck in the wire. She tore the fence from the ground, and within minutes, the flock had begun to wander.
Volunteers made aware of the disappearance by a series of BlitzMail messages soon rushed to the Farm to provide assistance. The problem, however, was not finding the animals -- overall, sheep are not known as one of nature's speediest creatures -- but apprehending them.
Julie, Esther and Cecilie are Jacob sheep, members of a black-and-white spotted heirloom breed that is more primitive than many of the domesticated breeds raised today, farm volunteer Erin Bingham '05 said. Tougher, smaller, wilder and with four horns each, they are greedy, friendly and skittish when in captivity, and nearly impossible to trap when free.
"They had never eaten out of our hands before," Eilers said. "It's kind of hard to catch something that's never come close to you."
And as Hanover Police did not call in New Hampshire Fish and Game authorities to tranquilize the sheep, their capture remained all the more elusive.
"You can't even really corral them because they'll jump right over you and poke your eye out," Gabe Calvi '05 said." The police would sit and watch, maybe for the laugh, but they wouldn't help at all."
That day, on Route 10, four-year-old Julie was caught and returned to the Farm after passing out from exhaustion, said part-time Farm intern Drew Wilkins '03. The other two sheep, Cecilie and Esther, spent the night alone.
"At that point, we were basically playing the waiting game," Wilkins said, noting that throughout the process, Hanover Police Department officials alerted Farm volunteers with calls reporting area sheep sightings.
But in spite of the odds and periodic downpours, Saturday turned out lucky for the newly-minted shepherds. A dispatch call came in from north on Route 10, and Eilers lured Esther with grain and grabbed her by the horns in the vicinity of 100 River Rd. at approximately 4:15p.m., according to the Farm's BlitzMail accounts.
"It was probably one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen in my life," Wilkins said. "Five-foot-two Meredith holding on for dear life, screaming, 'Get the rope!'"
Still, Cecilie, the last of the three sheep, remained loose until Sunday morning, when Farm director Scott Stokoe and Environmental Studies professor Ross Virginia caught her and drove her back to safety.
Quite the adventure for only a month and a half at their current address. The sheep permanently reside on a private farm in Wethersfield, Vt. and are on loan for the summer. They are the Organic Farm's first attempt to diversify the farm through an animal component, providing a free source of manure and grazing of overgrown vegetation.
"We're hoping that come fall, there will be enough interest to maintain a permanent program out there," Eilers said, noting that a significant amount of student involvement is needed to keep animals.
"These are our first livestock we've dealt with," Wilkins added. "They're making it interesting for us."
