A sheep, now known Fiona, had been stranded alone for two years on the foothills of the Scottish Highlands.
But a group of five men have managed to carry her up a steep slope. Hearing the prayers of Britain’s “loneliest sheep,” they outfitted with heavy machinery launched on a courageous rescue mission, lifting the shaggy creature up the steep wall of a steep 820-foot cliff.
Keep reading to know about the Fiona’s rescue!.
In 2021, Jillian Turner first discovered the sheep on a gravel beach gravel beach, lining a steep, rocky coastline during a Kayaking trip.
“I wasn’t too concern & honestly thought she might make her way back up” Turner said to Northen Times.
After two years, when Turner’s canoe club took the same travel again, saw the ewe, and she couldn’t move off her spot on the base of the cliff.
However, Turner was shocked to see the sheep had remained in the same place.
“She called out on our approach and once again followed our way along the shore, until she could go no further,” Turner said.
She added, “The helpless ewe has been on her own for at least two years – for a flock animal that has to be torture, and she came across to make connection with us on the two incidents we’ve gone past her.”
Looking for assistant, Turner called the Scottish SPCA, that said there was “ample grazing in the area,” and it was unable to make the “Extremely complex” rescue.
Daring rescue
On November 4, a tram of five farmers – headed by sheep shearer Cammy Wilson – took on the dangerous challenge of using “heavy equipment” to raise the ewe up a severe slope.
The “heroic” operation involved a winch mounted on a truck parked at the top of the cliff, 820-feet above the sheep, 660 feet of rope and a sling made from a feed bag.
One farmer supplied vital drone footage of the cliffs, supporting the men to map out their rescue.
Two men landed on top of the cliff handled the winch while three others were lowered down the steep rocky wall, where they found Fiona in a cave. “She was so calm down, it was miraculous,” Wilson said. “I was surprised by how chilled this sheep was, no panting or panic. It was almost as though she thought ‘Get me out of here.’ It’s rare a sheep acts like that.” And though at a certain point, the men worried the bag carrying Fiona was ripping, it Embraced her weight – she had been eating well – and they were able to uplift her to the plateau at the top without harm. “It was a really epic!” explained the rescuers, adding to the Facebook post of The Sheep Game that the sheep is now alive at a local farm park, where she’ll be in the community of an affable flock of animals. She’s labeled Fiona after the ogre princess in Shrek, who was saved by her prince.Wilson clarified, “There was a sheep called Shrek in Australia that was living in caves for years so this is the Scottish version.”People over the world were invested in Fiona’s rescue. Commenting on the Facebook post that shows the ewe, netizens gushed over the team from The Sheep Game that brought Fiona to safety.
How Fiona landed on the rocky beach is still a secret.
“It was a pleasure to save him safely and the sheep being joyful and healthy” Wilson said.
The Scottish SPCA was on site when the rescue took place. After Fiona’s paws were on more forgiving terrain, the group immediately checked the sweet animal and said she’s in great physical condition, only needing to be sheared.
Wilson added, “So sometimes you just need a group of idiots to get a job done. We won today, but we would have just been fools with good aims by a ‘small mistaken.”
We should thank the rescue team who risked their own lives on that steep cliff wall to save Fiona. We hope she enjoys many years in her new friends of animals!
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