Love may not conquer ALL, but it certainly has the potential to shake things up and turn our usual way of thinking on its ear. Love also tends to sneak up on us when we least expect it: we're hanging out in our favorite neighborhood watering hole, maybe munching on some food. We look up and there she is. We're pretty sure we've seen her around, but this time something feels different. Our eyes lock across the crowded room. It's instant chemistry and (insert sappy muzak) we live happily ever after.
This may sound a tad fairytale-ish, even to the most hopeless of hopeless romantics, but it's exactly what happened in the sheep barn at The Farm Sanctuary in New York when a sheep named Chico and a goat named Dorothy (above) fell head-over-heels in love. The Farm has seen its share of special bonds: steers Larry and Kevin have stood by each other for 16 years while Bing and Bessie, two geese, have been loyal companions for 24 years. Free from fear, stress and deprivation, its residents are able to express their true natures and, well, follow their hearts.Sometimes, just like with people, animals' hearts lead them in surprising directions. Though sheep and goats often get along fine, The Farm has rarely seen any keen interest between members of the two species. Dorothy and Chico live in a herd of more than 100 sheep and goats. They weren't rescued together and, according to The Farm, people often have a hard time telling them apart, especially the sheep. But Dorothy recognizes Chico from the other end of the barn. They seek each other out, and when they meet, they exchange adoring greetings by rubbing their heads against each other. They spend hours each day grooming, playing and snuggling together. No one knows exactly how it happened, but this sheep-goat pair is over the moon.While Dorothy and Chico are not intact, their union begs the question, if they were, could they have a little "geep" of their own? The New York Times recently addressed this issue in a science Q&A. According to the article, "a geep is not actually an offspring of the sexual mating of one sheep and one goat; rather, it is an animal resulting from the physical mingling of very early embryos of the two species" also known as a chimera. The first well-known geep was born in 1984 in Cambridge, England. It showed patches of both goatish hair and sheepish wool.An actual sheep-goat hybrid is also possible, but because goats and sheep have mismatched numbers of chromosomes (60 and 54, respectively), the resulting offspring, if it survives, is sterile.Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/pets/detail?blogid=48&entry_id=57280#ixzz0fuJGzG1E
This may sound a tad fairytale-ish, even to the most hopeless of hopeless romantics, but it's exactly what happened in the sheep barn at The Farm Sanctuary in New York when a sheep named Chico and a goat named Dorothy (above) fell head-over-heels in love. The Farm has seen its share of special bonds: steers Larry and Kevin have stood by each other for 16 years while Bing and Bessie, two geese, have been loyal companions for 24 years. Free from fear, stress and deprivation, its residents are able to express their true natures and, well, follow their hearts.
Sometimes, just like with people, animals' hearts lead them in surprising directions. Though sheep and goats often get along fine, The Farm has rarely seen any keen interest between members of the two species. Dorothy and Chico live in a herd of more than 100 sheep and goats. They weren't rescued together and, according to The Farm, people often have a hard time telling them apart, especially the sheep. But Dorothy recognizes Chico from the other end of the barn. They seek each other out, and when they meet, they exchange adoring greetings by rubbing their heads against each other. They spend hours each day grooming, playing and snuggling together. No one knows exactly how it happened, but this sheep-goat pair is over the moon.
While Dorothy and Chico are not intact, their union begs the question, if they were, could they have a little "geep" of their own? The New York Times recently addressed this issue in a science Q&A. According to the article, "a geep is not actually an offspring of the sexual mating of one sheep and one goat; rather, it is an animal resulting from the physical mingling of very early embryos of the two species" also known as a chimera. The first well-known geep was born in 1984 in Cambridge, England. It showed patches of both goatish hair and sheepish wool.
An actual sheep-goat hybrid is also possible, but because goats and sheep have mismatched numbers of chromosomes (60 and 54, respectively), the resulting offspring, if it survives, is sterile.