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Ewenice The Sheep Loses 45 Pounds After Going Almost 4 Years Without Being Shorn

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

You think you need a haircut? In Red Castle, Australia, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recently came upon a shaggy sheep roaming the Victorian countryside.

TERRY NESS: She looked like a big, woolly minibus with a head on it.

SIMON: That's Terry Ness, head inspectorate at the RSPCA, who says the sheep appeared to have gone close to four years without being shorn. Experts sheared off about 45 pounds of wool. They thought the newly slender sheep ought to have a name.

NESS: Yeah. Well, she's a ewe. We had Ewe Jackman, Wool Smith. And, of course, both of those are men, so we needed something that was female. So Ewenice seemed like a neat fit.

SIMON: Ewenice won't have to wander hillsides for her next shearing. She's been taken into a new home where she'll enjoy grazing with friends of all sheeps and sizes.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.