Our immediate neighbours, relations of my wife and about a decade younger than us, keep half a dozen sheep, unprepossessing at present after a recent shear. In fact they are a right bunch of spivs, often to be seen leaning on corners of the house in the mud behind it, plotting their next bit of fence vandalism and looking as if they've just dogged their cigarettes.
Number 18, the smallest but smartest ewe, did a runner the other day and was tracked down by my cousin-in-law to a neighbouring farmer's field, containing his much bigger flock and some reasonable looking grass. It followed her back to the electric strand but refused to cross it even when she had laid it on the ground. It touched the wire with its nose and jumped back.
Undeterred, my c-i-l jumped back and forth over the wire a few times to show the sheep how to do it without getting a shock, and after a few demonstrations the sheep followed suit.
'The only time I've ever got a sheep to do anything without having to involve food,' she told us over drinks that evening. I am impressed though not only by the sheep's willingness to understand its owner's communication but also my c-i-l's faith in the sheep's goodwill and intellect.
I feel there is a lesson here for world leaders among others.
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