Memories: Lambchops

Memories: Lambchops by A. A. Thomas

Before Dad went to work at Ft. Knox he worked for Rudolf Moore who owned the farm above us. Mr. Moore had a dairy, raised a few sheep, and tobacco.

Dad would go up early morning and late afternoon to milk the cows for Mr. Moore. One of the times he went up one of the sheep had twins and she had pushed one of the babies over to the side because she didn’t have enough milk for the two little ones. Mr. Moore told Dad he could have the lamb the mother had pushed to the side, maybe by bottle feeding it; the lamb would grow into a sheep.

Of course, we three were tickled to death that we had another pet to play with. We named the little lamb, Lambchops. He was so small that he stayed in the bathtub so Mom or Dad had easy access to feed him during the night. Lambchops eventually got too big for the tub and Dad moved him out to the shed in the back yard. 

He was starting to nibble at grass and Dad told mother it was time for Lambchops to give up the bottle.

Dad left to work at Ft. Knox early and Mom left for work at the coil plant in Elizabethtown about an hour after Dad left.

One morning after Dad had decided Lambchops was too big for a bottle, I got up early and saw mother going outside to the fence where Lambchops was. I could hear her talking and telling him not to worry she would make sure he didn’t do without his morning bottle of warm goats milk.

Sure enough she reached into one of her deep pockets and pulled out the bottle that Lambchops had been raised on. I never let her or Dad know that I saw her going out each morning to feed Lambchops.