Britain’s ‘loneliest sheep’ is struggling to return to a normal farm life after spending two years alone on a cliff in Scotland.
Fiona was rescued by a group of five men who managed to haul her up a steep slope in what they called a ‘major operation’ last November.
She’s spent almost a year with farmer Ben Best, but Fiona is reportedly ‘struggling’ to bond with other animals.
Fiona has been sheared and given lots of love in the past year, but Ben told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘While she is calm with people and seems to enjoy her life on the farm, she is still getting used to being around other animals.
‘She doesn’t socialise very well with other sheep – I think it is just from being down by herself and isolated for over two years at the bottom of that cliff – she has kind of forgotten how to be a sheep.’
Fiona was put on a diet after she put on a bit of weight during her solitary confinement.
The rescue mission was organised by Cammy Wilson, a sheep shearer from Ayrshire, after seeing media coverage of the ewe’s plight.
Describing the rescue, the group of men said she was ‘fat’ and it was some job lifting her up that slope’ and said ‘heavy equipment’ was needed.
Kayaker Jill Turner first spotted the ewe at Cromarty Firth two years ago during a kayak trip from Balintore to Nigg and then again on a recent trip.
Recalling the first time she saw the sheep, Ms Turner said: ‘She saw us coming and was calling to us along the length of the beach following our progress until she could go no further. She finally turned back, looking defeated.’
Ms Turner did not think too much about it at that point, assuming the sheep would manage to make its way up the rocky face.
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