What seemed like a normal day in March 2022 quickly turned into a rescue mission when a Good Samaritan walking through the bush in Victoria, Australia, stumbled on a strange pile of matted wool and sticks. On closer inspection, the passerby realized the mass of fleece belonged to a friendly sheep who had collapsed under the weight of his unshorn coat and was now unable to stand.
Worried for the sheep, the passerby quickly contacted local farm sanctuary Edgar’s Mission for help.
“I’m not sure how long the poor fellow had been lying there,” Edgar’s Mission founder and director Pam Ahern said in a press release. “But I do know that, judging by the length of his fleece, he had not been shorn in many a year, and had he not been found when he was, he would have passed from this world.”
Rescuers hastily moved the sheep, later named Alex, to safety. Then, they began the long process of shearing his massive coat.
Edgar’s Mission staff carefully removed 88 pounds of wool from Alex’s slender frame. All the while, the grateful sheep rested, waiting patiently for his rescuers to finish.
Finally free from his wooly prison, Alex stood on his wobbly legs and took a few nervous steps.
Rescuers watched in awe as the little sheep remembered what it was like to be mobile.
“I am not sure who was more relieved when the job was done,” Ahern said in the press release. “However, there was a collective sigh from one and all.”
Safe at Edgar’s Mission, Alex learned what it’s like to be loved.
The gentle sheep soon met members of his new family, a group of fellow rescue sheep, who taught him all he needed to know about his forever home.
“Chloe and Molly Brown, two elderly and wise rescued sheep, greeted Alex as he began his recovery and knew exactly what they had to do,” the rescue wrote in the press release. “They let him know that he really had landed on heaven on earth.”