If you can feel the crushing waves of loneliness descend the second you don't have any fresh WhatsApp notifications, or as soon as a dull Sunday with no plans rears its head, rest assured that things could be much, much worse. You could be a sheep stuck alone on a rainy Scottish beach at the foot of a cliff, tormented by the distant bleats of her lost flock.
It's not clear how the creature dubbed ‘Scotland’s loneliest sheep’ ended up stranded on an isolated rocky beach, but locals reckon that she has survived by taking shelter from the elements in the caves along this rugged shoreline. The sheep was first spotted by Jillian Turner in 2021 as she paddled her way round the coast from Balintore to Nigg with the East Sutherland Canoe and Kayak Club. This year, she repeated the trip and saw the same friendless woolly.
Naturally, she raised the alarm with local animal welfare organisations, but the SSPCA (Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) initially said it was not willing to help the mateless mutton, saying that the sheep was not in any immediate physical danger.
But what about the emotional misery of being stranded, something that anyone who sat through 2001 movie ‘Cast Away’ will be intimately familiar with? Luckily, Turner hasn’t given up on Thomasina Lambshanks (as this animal shall henceforth be known).
The cliff is too steep for any of the most woolly-headed Good Samaritans to risk a rescue. But there’s another way for anyone who's handy with a canoe paddle. Turner told the Daily Mail of her plan: ‘What we need is a semi-ridged inflatable [boat] that can go in, and for at least one of my farming friends to go along with a dog and capture her.’
‘I have had sheep myself so I think it's possible and so do they. She deserves to be given a good few years with other sheep.’
Other alternatives have emerged, with the SSPCA recently revealing it is planning an ‘incredibly complex’ rescue operation. The org told STV News: ‘Our team are continually monitoring the sheep and can confirm it has ample grazing and water and isn’t in any immediate danger. We do however want to reach the sheep as soon, and as safely, as possible.’
Will Turner mount her own rescue? Or will the SSPCA respond to the bleatings of concerned animal fans everywhere? Only time wool tell.
Did you see that this Scottish region is a must-visit destination in 2024, according to Lonely Planet?
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