A Farewell to Magellan, Our Beloved Sheep

Magellan the Sheep

We are so very sorry to announce the passing of Magellan, one of our Babydoll sheep. Magellan was about 15 years old and was having difficulty moving around due to arthritis. We first noticed that he was having issues last year, and the vet came out and prescribed him some pain medication. We were also concerned that he was not eating well, so she suggested that he be put on a pellet mash, which he enjoyed very much!

Even on pain medication, it was obvious that Magellan was slowing down, but he still was able to get up and walk around on his own, and he seemed to be comfortable. Eventually, however, the arthritis in his ankle and knee started to cause issues in his shoulder, which obviously made it difficult for him to move around. He was still able to get up and move around, but it was clear that he was struggling. We didn’t want him to be in a situation in which he couldn’t get up and would get scared or hurt himself, so we finally had to make the decision to help him pass on.

Magellan’s Life at Hanaeleh

We welcomed Magellan and his brother to the ranch when they were just about six months old. Phillip was the smaller of the two. They came from the Mission Viejo Agriculture Program, which raised them to be sold as pets and for weed abatement. Babydoll sheep are incredibly sweet and are raised not only for pets, but also used for weed abatement in wineries because they can’t climb and eat the vines like goats can. We thought that they would be helpful for weed abatement, but also just thought that they would be adorable (which they are).

A year later, we got Ferdinand. So, we had Phillip, Ferdinand and Magellan. Ferdinand and Magellan were named after the explorer who was killed during his exploration of the Philippines. Phillip was named after King Phillip of France. Magellan was the largest and the smartest of all of the boys- he was the reason we had to purchase the Rubbermaid sheds to shelter the trash cans where we stored the hay pellets, as he learned first how to take the lid off of the trash can. When we were finally able to figure out how to secure the lids, Magellan learned that he could get to the pellets by knocking the entire trash can over! Ergo, the need to secure all of the cans inside of the sheds.

That being said, once the doors of the shed were open, it was open season on the pellets inside, and more than once we had to offer Magellan tribute pellets on the ground outside of the shed while frantically filling up the pellet buckets before he finished eating what we had given him.

Magellan also enjoyed treats offered to him by our volunteers; near the end he learned to hang out by the shed where we keep the horse treats, and would ask for cookies every time we walked in to get something. He was able to finagle treats from so many people just by hanging out near the food!

All of the sheep enjoyed munching on the grass around the ranch, and we spent the first year of Magellan and Phillip’s life teaching them to stay on the property. They would often get up on the hill and pretend to be goats and we would have to shoo them back down, but for the most part they would just wander around on the ranch being inquisitive.

We also taught them a special clap so they would follow us back to their pen. It feels a little like being the Pied Piper, leading the sheep back to their home at the end of the day.

Overall, Magellan was just a very sweet, somewhat stubborn boy. He was the best sheep when it came to being sheared, and just sat there while he was shaved, he didn’t struggle or make life difficult for Daryll (our sheep shearer) at all. He was a very good influence on Ferdinand, who became his shadow for most of his life- wherever Magellan was, Ferdinand was not far behind. Magellan was also the one who was able to get into whatever food we didn’t want him to get into, but since he was a sheep, that was kind of his job.

Last Day

Magellan was surrounded by his sheep friends when we said goodbye. He passed peacefully on a sunny afternoon under the lemon tree. When we have to say goodbye to our horses, we let their friends see them so they can understand their friends are truly gone, and while they’re upset, they seem to understand death, and they are able to move on.

Unfortunately, sheep aren’t very bright, and although we let Ferdinand and Robert Bruce sniff Magellan and be around him for a while after he was gone, they didn’t understand why their friend wasn’t coming into the pen with them. They called, bleating plaintively for him, all night.

Thankfully, as sheep aren’t very bright, the next morning they seemed to be back to normal. Sheep cannot live alone, so thankfully Robert Bruce and Ferdinand have each other. They are kind of figuring out their world without their brother.

We miss our boy, and his quiet presence (mostly quiet- he would bleat very loudly if he wanted food). He was a very good sheep and he has left a void at the ranch. He was truly a very special boy.