A sheep who found her legs on wheels

KIKI’S SECOND CHANCE

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A SHEEP named Kiki zips around the yard of an animal sanctuary in a motorised wheelchair. She navigates on her own, tilting a joystick with her head to move forward and back, left and right.

“She’s like a crazy teenager; she wants to go very fast,” said Deb Devlin, president of the Don’t Forget Us, Pet Us sanctuary in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Kiki was born with limited mobility and cannot walk. Her mother contracted Cache Valley virus while pregnant, which caused Kiki to be born with fused joints and spinal issues.

At birth, Kiki’s mother rejected her and refused to feed her, which is not uncommon when a lamb is sick or disabled. The farm where Kiki was born didn’t have the resources to look after her and contacted Don’t Forget Us, Pet Us to see if they could help. Devlin went right away, in December 2021, to see the 11-day-old lamb.

“When | first saw her, I felt so sad for her,” said Devlin, who co-founded the nonprofit sanctuary in 2016. “She was on this gentleman’s lap, she was wrapped in a blanket, and she was shivering.”

Kiki can feel sensations from her neck down, though she is unable to move herself. During Kiki’s first months at the sanctuary, Devlin and other volunteers tried physical therapy, chiropractic treatments, laser therapy and even tendon release surgery. None of it worked.

That’s when Devlin realised: “She wasn’t broken,” she said. “She was perfect.”

Instead of trying to improve Kiki’s mobility, Devlin began focusing on what Kiki could already do. She decided to experiment with toys as enrichment.

“She can’t just sit there all day and do nothing,” Devlin said. “You can’t take an animal like this and put them in a stall 24 hours a day.”

She got interactive, press-and-play children’s toys and quickly noticed that Kiki was able to operate them using her head.