Found

Pop Adum was found in a place sheep never are. And yet, there he concerningly was.

A wee slip of a ram lamb, painfully thin and with a troublesome front leg that did not function as it should. And while that explained why he moved as he did, it did not explain his skeletal little form. That told us only one thing. Somehow, Pop Adum had not had enough.

Enough milk, enough nourishment, enough of the things every young life should simply be able to count upon.

But then something did come.

Kindness.

In the form of a council worker who saw not just a tiny lamb where no lamb ought to be, but someone worth stopping for. And from there, things decidedly started heading north.

Hungry little Pop Adum readily accepted the bottle, our love and his new friend, Marmalade, a cheery kid goat with considerably more energy to burn.

Different species. Similar circumstances. Two little lives finding their way forward together.

They make quite the odd couple. Marmalade, a burnt orange ball of energy bouncing about as though each day is one enormous invitation, while Pop Adum takes things at a rather more considered pace.

Yet somehow, they understand one another.

And there is something deeply heartening in that.

Because none of us can carry every suffering animal in our arms at once. The enormity of that would surely break us.

But we can carry one.

We can feed one, we can comfort one. And we can find one a friend.

And when our hearts ache for all those we cannot reach, perhaps we honour them best by allowing that love to shape what we do for the one before us.

For Pop Adum, one person stopped. One person cared. And in that chance moment, one little life changed direction.

And sometimes, that is how the whole world changes. One someone at a time.