Toffee the sheep’s sweet story
FOR three days he was one of Port Elizabeth’s “most wanted” – a pet sheep named Toffee who disappeared from his family’s smallholding.
Everybody around Theescombe, Chelsea and some other neighbourhoods feared the six-month-old had become unstuck or got the chop – the centrepiece of an impromptu braai or possibly the victim of a lambchop kidnapping plot.
Owner Nicky Charlewood said the family were heartbroken when they could not find Toffee on their Upper Seaview Road smallholding on Tuesday.
“I got Toffee, a Damara ram, when he was a day old and raised him with a bottle. He is our beloved pet sheep. He thinks he is a dog – this makes it very easy for someone to pick him up.”
By Wednesday, Charlewood had offered a R2 000 reward and posted his picture all over social media along with placing posters with his picture around the neighbourhood.
Charlewood said when Toffee first disappeared she feared the worst. “Everybody said he had been stolen for food,” she said.
“Marizanne Ferreira [an animal rights activist] kept on telling me not to lose hope.”
Early yesterday, Charlewood upped the reward to R2 500.
“Then I got a call from a neighbour, Tanya Radke, who said they had Toffee.
“I offered to pay her the reward but she declined, saying that I must rather donate it to Animal Welfare.”
Charlewood said she eventually decided to give the reward to a woman farm worker, who had found Toffee and brought him to Radke.
“It was a very happy reunion,” Charlewood said.
When her children – Erin, 14, and Seth, 11 – returned from school there were hugs for Toffee, with the ram of the moment even trying to eat his own “missing” poster – no doubt in an effort to chew on the drama his disappearance had caused.
Everybody said he had been stolen for food