A Traveller’s Tale

Updated May 16, 2025

Along the lonely stretch of highway between South Australia and Victoria, something small and fragile caught the light.

But a second glance revealed what the first had missed—not a “something,” but a “someone”: a newborn lamb, alone in its vastness.The field, barren and parched. The sky, dim with silence. Rain had not fallen for the longest time.

Nor had kindness.

But both were about to.

And there the newborn lamb lay. Shivering. Alone. Curled against a fencepost. Wet amniotic fluid still clung to her fragile body. This, the only remnant of love left in an otherwise inhospitable world.

There’s a shadow that hangs heavy over the sun of little lambs like Juniper. A shadow of human making—cast by commodification, and a lack of meaningful animal protection laws.

But shadows can be lifted by us all.

Arriving into our care and bed in the wee hours of this morning, the last traces of her mumma’s love were picked from her tiny frame. Flaking away like tissue paper-thin reminders of what had almost been.

We can choose to be just like those kind travellers who pulled over, stepped out and up, and scooped life into their arms

And in their place, human kindness flowed. As Juniper swallowed, we inhaled. Oxytocin swelled. Her wool smelled of earth and newness.

Life just beginning.

With her belly now full of life-enhancing colostrum and love, Juniper curiously sniffed our nose, explored our face, and let out the softest sigh before snuggling into our side.

Two beings, gently wrapped in each other’s warmth, ready to let sleep take hold.

There’s a hidden school to this thing called life. Its greatest lessons are taught not in classrooms or lecture halls—but through how we treat the most vulnerable among us.

Because in a world where we can legally do just about anything to animals—forcibly separating babies from their confused mummas, mutilating their bodies without pain relief or skill, profiting from their suffering and death—we can also choose not to.

We can choose to be just like those kind travellers who pulled over, stepped out and up, and scooped life into their arms. And although they may have delayed their arrival—they found something far grander.

They found the deepest expression of their humanity—compassion in motion.

And because of this, Juniper found life.