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Panda is effectively another of Skippy's rescue sheep. His story began in January this year, when Skippy and Brambles decided it would be a lark to go on holiday to my neighbour's field.

Not that conditions are such that they want to escape from here; far from it, they are spoiled rotten here. But they do have a fair bit of interest in what goes on over the fence on my neighbour's side, particularly if more sheep are there, and I think they just wanted to socialise a bit.

Anyway I wasn't unduly bothered by it, although we resolved to find out where egress had been made and fix up the fence at that point. We'd told our neighbour of the situation and he said he'd round them up and drop them off in a few days when he had the time. It wasn't really a worry as we get on well with our neighbour, and he knows our sheep, there was no danger of anything bad happening to them. We could even see the silly pair over the fence any time.

So a few days later our neighbour comes round in his Landy, towing a trailer. We prepared to receive the two errant boys, and our neighbour says "ah, there's someone else in there, seemed like he wanted to come with your two. The kids call him Panda. Of course if you don't want him, send him away and he'll be off to market next week anyway".

Send him away? Gentle reader, take a look at this picture and ask yourself how anyone could even *think* of sending him away to a bad fate.

And so Panda arrived here on a somewhat damp February morning, a bit confused at first, in unfamiliar surroundings although really just over the fence from where he'd been. A million miles away in terms of his life expectancy though.

Here he is moments after coming out of the trailer, flanked by the two escapees, looking rather damp and vulnerable.

He's been an absolute joy ever since. He loves not just cuddles but actually to snuggle and will stand there absolutely content as you hold him and cuddle him. In summer if you sit down in the field he'll come and climb into your lap. He is just a super affectionate and loving chap.

He's so cute he even gets fan mail. He's received letters and parcels of Digestive biscuits from a little girl (who has the same name as our donkey) and her brother. They've even visited him with their parents.

Here he is receiving a stash of Digestives from the same source. He is a gentleman of course and shares his good fortune with the rest of the flock.

He's growing up now, and third in the hierarchy of the flock. He remains a complete and utter cuddle bug mind.

He's growing up big and strong - look how tall he was, and this is a few months ago now!

Here he is yesterday, so you can see how his wool is growing back; by Spring he'll doubtless be an exuberantly fluffy boy.

He is probably the most affectionate sheep I've ever known, and runs up for cuddles as soon as he sees you. If you should try and leave before delivering a full set of cuddles then he'll butt you in the back of the knee to let you know you can't go yet.

But why would you ever want to leave? There can't be many better ways to spend relaxing time than cuddling with this fluffy and affectionate chap.

@llamasoft_ox their affection shows how well you are looking after them!

@MouseByTheSea We do our best to give them the best lives we can. The rewards in love and affection are just priceless

@joshmend @llamasoft_ox good grief man, I'm actually teared up. Wow. Thanks for sharing!

@jaz @joshmend Every sheep has their own story! It's really nice having a good space to share them in!

@ikkleboo It's a pleasure to be able to share their stories and spread some of the joy they bring us. I'm British but nonetheless I am thankful that we have the space and opportunity to be able to keep and look after our little flock. My only regret is that we can't save even more of them.