Residents | Rainbow Bridge > Sheba
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Sheba in early
years
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Sheba & friend Purple
Cow at Christmas
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Sheba half shorn
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Sheba: The Queen and Founder
Sheba started out an orphaned lamb that was bought at auction
and then raised with dogs. This gave Sheba a very interesting perspective
on life and a propensity for trying to get into the front seat
of the car for road trips.
One day while playing in the yard, two feral dogs from the Indian
Reservation jumped the fence and then jumped Sheba. Her owner
was able to scare them away but not until much damage was done.
She was rushed to a vet who gave her little to no chance to live
because, after all, she is a sheep and sheep are not known for
their will to live.
Well, that vet did not know Sheba. Plus she was raised as a
dog, if you recall. She was not only going to survive but she
was determined to walk again. The injuries she sustained that
day caused her to lose the use of her back legs. Her owner, not
knowing what to do, gave her to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
to help her walk again. They were able to get her on her feet
for a few steps and then winter set in. Combined with missing
her old family, Sheba went down again.
The following spring is when now Executive
Director Laura Bradshaw and Sheba met. It was love at first
sight. Laura spent a week massaging Sheba’s stiff legs
and got them moving a little. She then brought Sheba to Los
Angeles where Laura performed water therapy on her, in a kiddie swimming pool, until her long trip back to Kanab when Healing HEART
Sanctuary was officially
started.
“Sheba is really the muse of Healing HEART. If it weren’t
for trying to help her get back on her feet I wouldn’t
have gotten back on my own as soon as I did. She just kept saying ‘Never
give up!’ and luckily I listened”, recalls Laura
Bradshaw.
Sheba could walk on her own in a shallow swimming pool, mostly because of a sheep’s four stomachs and a lot of gas, a sheep floats really well.
She and her BFF (Best Friend Forever) Dorie co-existed
for years, and they were quite the pair together.
Sheba sniffed everything that was brought into her area to give
it her approval or disapproval and she definitely considered
herself the “Queen of Healing HEART Sanctuary”, a
title she lived up to.
She was the living essence of how “even” a farm animal can happily live a disabled life and provides lessons
for all of us who get hung up on the small physical issues in
life, and let it get us down. Sheba demonstrated in her queenly
way that life was an example to set for others; and what a high
benchmark it was.
Sadly, Sheba went to the Rainbow
Bridge on Christmas 2008.
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