Easter love from our little lambs

Happy Easter! Our little lambs Luna and Luca are literally full of the joys of spring as they bound around the sanctuary. They're set for a long, happy life with us, but may only have lived for six months if they’d not escaped the commercial farming world. 

Luna and Luca arrived very vulnerable, at less than a day old

ORPHANED AND REJECTED

Ironically, being orphaned and rejected at birth saved our lambs’ lives. Luna was orphaned when her mum died giving birth to her two stronger sisters, and Luca was rejected as the runt of a litter of three. It’s common for sheep to have triplets and while farmers will bottle-rear stronger lambs who are orphaned or rejected, they don’t tend to save the weakest, so Luna and Luca were in real danger.

Luck was on their side, however, as one of our volunteers was helping with lambing season at the farm where they were born and asked if she could take them. Luna came first in February, then a month later, Luca arrived. If you follow us on social media, you’ll have seen our posts about these two – we’re sharing all their ‘first times’ from bottle feeds to the day they set eyes on each other.

Our two little lambs have become inseparable

GROWING STRONGER

At just 24 hours old Luna was very frail, with a nasty eye infection that needed medical attention. Yet despite her shaky start, she grew a tiny bit stronger every day.

When Luca first arrived at the sanctuary on Valentine’s Day morning, he was also just 24 hours old and weighed not much more than 3 kilos. He had bright little eyes and huge ears, and lots of skin to grow into! He’s also a little fighter and despite being so tiny, was soon keen to run around and jump in the air. 

While Luca's much stronger now, we can’t see him ever quite catching up with his big sister Luna – she’s absolutely huge, and a really stocky little sheep!

Tiny little Luca and his BIG sister Luna!

AMAZING INDIVIDUALS

At one week old Luca's little personality was already shining through and at three weeks old, he finally started to really go for his bottle. He loves following you and nibbling on your legs to ask for his feed, and afterward, he'll cuddle down in your lap and drift off to sleep. 

Luna is insatiably curious and loves meeting people. After settling in she became more mischievous by the second! At a few weeks old her nightly case of the 'zoomies' – zooming around our house bleating merrily – was hilarious. She definitely found her feet and her voice pretty quickly. 

The two of them are spending more time out in the field with the other sheep now, but always cry to come back in when they’re cold or hungry. 

Luna meets Billy on a trip to the orchard

We’re so grateful they both made it to us, and so excited to see them grow into amazing individuals. From the minute we met them their antics have had a massive impact on sanctuary life. After a long, wet, and muddy winter in lockdown, the early onset of springtime in Somerset was just what we needed, and it really did arrive with our precious little lambs.

Find out more about sheep,show your support for Luna and Luca, and share some Easter fun with our 'Learn with Luna' activity sheet - available in our shop now for just £1.50.