The saga of the sheep

An Anecdote from parent Lindsay Alsop about the pet sheep ALI BABA

You probably remember ALI BABA as the sheep which was the animate lawn mower for Preshil but to me, he was a whole lot more than that, he became an obligation which recurred every 12 months. Someone had to shear the wretched animal and as my company manufactured sheep shearing machinery, naturally all the eyes swivelled in my direction when I pointed out that he (or more correctly “it”) should be shorn every year, not only for his own sake but also to conform to the law.

The late ALI BABA was a wether and a Border Leicester Cross. This English breed grows long open wool suitable for carpet making and the sheep has a large frame giving a good size carcass for the meat trade. ALI was tethered on the front lawn of Preshil on the end of a piece of rope and his total occupation in life was to eat the grass and to grow wool. Not much of a bright future.

When the time came for him to be shorn I said I would do the job in the mistaken belief that I might get away with it in a quiet obscure corner but as things turned out that was not to be. 

Miss Margaret thought the chance was too good to miss, a heaven-sent opportunity to broaden the minds and outlooks of the children and I found I had the complete school – in those far off days, say about 100 children – as an audience.

Even the best shearer occasionally cuts a sheep while shearing it, and I’m afraid that I inflicted a few more cuts on the animal than average. The children reacted very badly from my point of view with comments like “he’s a cruel man”   “look at all that blood”   “the horrid man’s cutting poor ALI” and so on. When I finally finished the interjection-studded job I’m not sure which of the two of us was the more exhausted, ALI or me. I think I was.

I did this thankless task the next year with even more abuse and from then on I took out a proper shearer to shear ALI BABA. I couldn’t take the criticisms any more.

When ALI BABA at last had run his race on earth I took him into Smorgan's meat cannery and he became portion of a batch of “Young Lamb and Peas”. We sold ALI and his last fleece within a short time of each other and we got 3 pounds for poor old senile ALI and the same amount of 3 pounds for his fleece.

Lindsay Alsop (1982)