Maude the Sheep

For a number of years, this most talented and vocal of sheep entertained us and many of our friends with her observations on life. While she has retired, we find our readers still enjoy her pages! So click on the links to follow Maude's Saga...

(When you click on any of the small pictures Maude has put in these pages, you will get to the full-sized one. To get back to this page, click on your back browser button)

I'm so excited about this web page I hardly know where to begin! So let me begin at the beginning! By God's grace, because He knew my shepherd needed training, I was born on May 20th, 2000, at Zoar Farms.

To think that now I am a cover girl seen on computers and used as "wallpaper" around the world! When my shepherd started to read me some of my fan mail, I was overcome. Truly the God who made us all is good.

This is a picture of me this fall when I was almost grown up. This was my first celebrity shot, and lots of people saw me at the Otsego County Fair! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

By way of further introduction: My shepherd is one of the nuns from the monastery that is attached to our barn and fields. They understand things. They realize how important we are and that no matter how busy they may be, they need to serve us.

God watches over us, and if they don't do their job, He knows right away! And so do we. I discovered early on, though, that some of my fellows here in the barn don't take their job seriously enough. If our servants are late in coming, they just turn around and chew their cuds, or even go to sleep! Not me!

I know how hard it's going to be on Judgment day if they aren't with us sheep, so I sound the alarm! And if I think they don't hear me, then I'll go looking for them -- and bring a search party with me!

If you think that story about the sheep and goats isn't serious, you need to come visit us.

Unlike Maude, some of us are born without knowing God's stories (See St. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 25, verses 31-36). On the other side of our barn (the left side) there are a whole bunch of goats. The biggest of them, named Stinky, is a case in point. I've heard my shepherd telling our guests that he is "the sweetest boy."

Well let me tell you, he may be sweet by goat standards, but that's not saying much! When he decides he wants to go out on a date with one of his girlfriends, even living here with a monastery attached, nothing stops him! We sheep stand by aghast to watch him knock out one side of the barn to leave his pen, and then knock out another side of the barn just to get into his girl friend's pen! But then our servant knows it's her job to fix things, so she's probably very happy to know Stinky gives her so many things to fix!

Stinky's favorite girl friend is Wally, and she's as bad as he is! She was so mean when she first came here that our servants had to tie her to keep her from beating up everyone else! Wally is really a good example of what happens when you don't behave! Because she didn't like being tied up, one day she got her leg all wrapped up in the chain. My shepherd never told me all the gory details, but the fact of the matter is that now she hops around on three legs, just because she was such a mean goat!

But I shouldn't spend so much time on the unpleasant things of life. Most creatures are like myself, good, sweet and kind, even by Right Hand Sheep standards!