A snow-white one month old Cheviot mule cross lamb had a dramatic experience on Easter Monday when he leaped from a trailer taking him to a new home in the Oulart area, but a scary adventure has ended well and he has lived to have the tale told about him.
Local resident Martin Byrne, who lives close to Clonroche Mill found the lost lamb in a distressed state and running mad around the garden when he engaged his neighbour and sheep farmer Roy Tector to bring a sense of calmness to the unfolding madness.
Roy invented a make-shift crook so they caught and calmed the little fellow.

Sarah-Jane Tector helping her Dad Roy with the missing lamb Noel on their farm at Clonroche. Pic; WexfordToday.com

The men tried a bottle feed, but that didn’t work, so one of Roy’s ewes who had only one lamb was taken on board in a foster mother capacity and the lamb who was poignantly named ‘Noel’ after the late Noel Tector whose family and friends had paid their final respects to earlier that day.

Noel was given temporary welfare on the Tector farm while Roy set about identifying the owner and he was greatly assisted by a sheep sales tag attached to his rich wool covered coat.
After a number of phone calls the identity of the lamb, who was noticed as missing when he arrived at a farm in Oulart, had been purchased earlier in the day at a sheep sale held at Kenmare Mart.
While on the way to Wexford he hopped up on a few ewes and other lambs in the trailer, misjudged the opening at the top, and found quickly himself on the roadside near the village of Clonroche.
When discovered by a local man he was uninjured, but described as “nervous and confused”, however, he was given shelter and comfort and all was well.
The new owner of Noel travelled from Oulart to Clonroche earlier this evening, the men didn’t know each other until united by a phone call, and the saga ended happily. Noel has been united with his flock!