Thursday, January 2, 2014

Scott Atkinson and the Rogue Sheep of Flint, Michigan

The rogue sheep of Flint, Michigan. (Photo by Scott "The Sheep Whisperer" Atkinson/The Flint Journal)


It appears even visiting sheep embrace the fiercely independent ethos of Flint. Scott Atkinson of The Flint Journal braves the wilds of Mott Park and the Glenwood Cemetery to commune with the wooly maverick who walked off the job at a nativity scene:
"The Christmas sheep of Mott Park is not a myth.

"I've seen it with my own eyes.
"Three days after the sheep made its escape from the West Court Street Church of God's annual Nativity scene Christmas Eve, I came face-to-face with the creature Friday, Dec. 27, as I wandered through Glenwood Cemetery in search of the beast.
"I have returned to tell the tale."
 Read the rest here.

3 comments:

  1. That is good writing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't understand the sheep owner's indirect comment in the FJ article that the sheep is fine foraging for itself. My understanding is that sheep need live grass, or at least green vegetative material--quite unavailable when it's this cold out, even if the snow's pawed away--and unlike whitetail deer don't have the right winter rumen-bacteria to digest twigs and other woody material. Yes, maybe the sheep can live off its fat for a while, but that's not quite the same thing as saying it's fine on its own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If they want to find this sheep before it starves and freezes, they should forget about the gaggle-of-humans approach, and instead just bring in a trained cold-weather herding dog that does the Find command well. Presto, one sheep.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.