SALISBURY — Excitement was in the air at the Scoville Memorial Library Wednesday, Aug. 26, when the staff of Le Petit Ranch arrived with seven sheep, temporary fencing and plenty of treats for children to feed the animals.
Le Petit Ranch is a nonprofit organization based in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It provides educational and community-based opportunities through animal-assisted activities.
The father-and-son team of Dan and Mitch Moulton, both from the ranch, backed the sheep trailer up to the lawn behind the library and set up some temporary fencing. This took some doing as it was thoroughly tangled up. Meanwhile people, mostly parents and children, began to gather 15 minutes before the scheduled 2 p.m. start.
Dan Moulton was asked where the gate in the fence was. He pointed to the trailer.
“That’s the gate.”
Mitch Moulton lowered the gate and the sheep -- Cinnamon, Grace, Tracy, Mocha, Latte and Lawrence Welsh -- trotted out and began exploring their temporary home, bleating and munching on grass.
Youngsters successfully fed sheep by hand at the Scoville Memorial Library.Patrick L. Sullivan
The humans picked their way gingerly through the sheep trailer–which was full of clean hay but nonetheless contained sheep droppings–and joined them.
Staffers, including ranch founder Marjorie Borreda and sisters Alice and Louise Levalet, provided handfuls of sheep food and the children began offering it to the animals. The sheep, recognizing a good thing when they saw it, abandoned the grass in favor of the food.
Borreda circled around the mass of excited children and bemused sheep, occasionally reminding the youngsters not to chase the animals.
The ranch staff mostly spoke to each other and to the sheep in French, which added an international flavor to the event.
