A five-legged lamb nicknamed “Fiver” was saved from the dinner table thanks to a one-in-a-million extra limb.
Fiver caused quite a sensation (轰动) when she was born on Andrew Bell’s farm near York. But shortly after she took her first unsteady steps — the lamb appeared destined for the knife.
Thankfully for Fiver it was the vet’s scalpel (手术刀) rather than the butcher’s knife.
Mr Bell’s vet daughter, Katy said neither she nor her father had ever seen a lamb like her before. She said, “We think the most likely reason for being born with an extra limb could be that she was trying to form a conjoined (连体的) twin but failed eventually.”
Ms Bell brought the family’s miracle lamb to her colleague Julian Norton, the star of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet. Mr Norton cut off Fiver’s extra leg as it was making it hard for her to feed. She said, “We didn’t want her to look physically imperfect for too long, so we got the operation done within 20 minutes. It was very short but Fiver came through it and it was a success. Within a few hours she was back with her mum in the fields having fun like nothing had happened. We feel much honored to have experienced such a rare event.”
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this was certainly the case when Katy spotted Fiver. The animal lover could not bear the idea of the lamb being farmed out and offered up her home.
She said, “I immediately wanted to give her a forever home; she is such an amazing creature and I didn’t want her to end up on someone’s dinner plate.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yesterday Matt was sick. I picked up Archie from the sitter and Eloise from school and decided to run to Target for a few things. I had hoped to be in and out quickly.
I found a line with just one person ahead of me and began organizing my items on the conveyor. After placing my items, I looked up to see that the person ahead of me was an elderly woman. She was paying for her items with change and wanted to purchase each separately. I was frustrated with this woman and the inconvenience she had placed on me.
But then I watched the young employee with this woman. I watched him help her count her change, ever so softly taking it from her shaking hands. When she asked if she had enough to buy a reusable bag, he told her she did and went two lines over to get one for her and then repackaged her items. Never once was this employee angry. He was nothing but patient and kind.
As I was watching him, I saw that Eloise was too. She was standing next to the woman, watching the employee count the change. I realized I hadn’t been inconvenienced at all. That my daughter was instead witnessing kindness and patience and being taught this valuable lesson by a complete stranger.
When the woman was finished, the employee began ringing up my items and thanked me for my patience. I then thanked him for teaching us patience and kindness by his treatment of that elderly woman. When he was finished, I pushed my cart through the store trying to find the manager. I wanted her to know of the employee’s kindness and patience and how much it meant to me. After tracking her down and sharing the story with her, we left Target with a cart full of consumable items, but what is more, a heart full of gratitude for such an invaluable lesson.
If you are ever in the Glendale Target, give Ishmael a smile and a nod. The world could use more people like him.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
