What happens to a flock, when the Shepherd passes away?

Sunny, clear, crisp day here at Fossil Creek Farm. It is filled with potential and combined with the fact that its a weekend, could be both a work hard and play hard day. Time will tell as it unfolds.

This time of year I am often looking at the flock, and particular animals within, and thinking about a dear friend and fellow shepherd who was instrumental in helping me along my path with Finnsheep.

We first met over some Angora rabbits she had for sale. I had placed a call and was invited to her home, not far from mine where she also kept sheep. Of course the visit wouldn't have been complete without meeting the sheep, and as in love with fleece as I am, I was immediately enthralled. Info quickly came to light that a young ram would be available for sale in the fall and in my excitement I agreed that I would take him at the appropriate time.

As it turns out, he was a Finn. I had met Finnsheep before through a visit to Stillmeadow Finnsheep, also nearby, and had learned much from longtime shepherd Elizabeth Kinne Gossner, but in all honesty, sheep in general were new to me and frankly, at that point in my life, if it had fleece, it was a wonderful and prized creature indeed. Breed not important.

On Halloween, my first Finn boy arrived and along with two other sheep of differing breeds, formed my fledgling flock.

Clef ( as he became known ) settled right in and his previous owner soon became a close and dear friend with us finding a simpatico that we hadn't experienced before. Many conversations, meals, beers, fiber festivals and much trading of sheep later, we thought life was as good as it could ever possibly be, when she was diagnosed with cancer.

A year of treatments, and a year of remission later, we were once again riding the wave of homesteading/shepherding and encouraging each other , ( more likely enabling each other ! ) in our sheep endeavors. Until she was diagnosed with stage four cancer.

With a fairly rapid decline, and radical changes to their living situation she and her husband disbanded the flock, with the most treasured animals being gifted to me. Two arrived at our farm and lambed very soon afterward, bringing the total of the animals from my friend to 10.

In grief over her illness, loss of her dreams and eventual loss of a friend that could not be replaced, I didn't want to think about or bring up such practical matters as transfer of registrations, and so, I let it drop by the wayside.

Within months, I was attending a funeral and life as I had known it, wasn't going to ever be the same.

With the follwing lambing, and now two years worth of offspring attributed to my friends, and now my ewes, I knew I needed to get the registrations done, and was unhappily surprised to find there would be complications.

At the time, FBA policy was that the flock of a deceased shepherd could not be transferred. Without the shepherd to sign off, transfer was not possible. Time passed as I chewed on this and thought about the possibilities, the least of which was simply having unregistered animals in my flock.

At this time the IFR ( International Finnsheep Registry ) came into being and I contacted Heidi Trimbur - President, ( thank you for time spent talking with me, and emailing back and forth and the willingness to be available )who agreed to assist me in getting registrations on said animals. This resulted in more deliberating on my part while I contacted the widowed husband of my friend who agreed to help with paperwork.

A consideration to be fully weighed in the balance here, is that the Finnsheep Breeders Association, the older of the two  Finn breed organizations does not recognize animals registered with IFR, which effectively is the same result as having unregistered animals if the goal is to sell breeding stock in the mainstream.

As my spouse and I further considered pros/cons and what to do, the issue was presented again to the Finnsheep Breeders board, ( thank you Elizabeth, Gail and Mary ) who looked at it from a legal perspective as well as a loss for the Finnsheep breeding program overall, and gave me options for registering the gifted sheep.

In the end, it turns out that my friend and her husband were BOTH listed on the registrations and he could indeed act as breeder to go ahead and transfer the sheep without his wifes' signature. No special interventions were necessary under the circumstances.( But the outcome is that the FBA reconsidered and has made provisions for just such circumstances in the future.)

What ensued, was a difficult, emotionally exhausting, lengthy process for both myself and my friends husband to find, organize, complete and send off the correct paperwork. No surprise but the task has not been speedy.

In the end, the paperwork for transferring the sheep to us, and allowing for registration of offspring is in the works and should be completed shortly. A journey of several years will come to a close.

Each time I look at those sheep I see my friend, remember those cold ones, the laughter and the deep, heavy sorrow, but see hope and joy too, and I suspect she would be well pleased .

The lesson we learned here is for the sake of the flock and its future should something happen to me, the shepherd, we have registered the animals in both our names. Nobody likes to think of the "what ifs " but the loss of high quality breeding stock with years of selective breeding behind it is too great NOT to make provisions
for its future.

Regards,
Kathryn