A Lamb without Wool

Larry the lamb was a fluffy, sweet little lamb who was sleeping in the barn one starry night; next to his wooly mother who kept him nice and warm. What happened next wasn’t so peaceful. A burly man stormed in with a dimmed lantern. All the animals began to scurry around crashing in to walls and hollering with panic. Larry became separated from his mom. “Hide, hide, hide”, yelled the horse. Larry has never experienced this type of insanity in the barn at night. Scrambling in the pen he ran around calling for his mother. “Mommy… Mommy”! A halo of light appears on the ground around him. He looked up and two large hands picked him up and out of the pen.
In the tight grip of the mysterious man, Larry squeals with all his might. But it was too late. He was carried across a graveled path into another barn. The man tossed Larry into the pen with fresh straw with his calloused hands. Exhausted from all the squealing, Larry fell asleep.
The next morning, he woke up in barn he had never seen the likes of before. He looked across the room and saw large piles of wool sitting on a table. As he moved his eyes downward, he saw more scattered on the floor. He thought to himself, Where am I? Who was that strange man? Will he kill me? Though out the day he circled his pen thinking about what could happen next.
All of a sudden, the doors swung open. Larry looked up and saw the man again. He wore a red hat, an olive shirt, blue jeans, and worn out cowboy boots. The man grunted, and began to walk towards Larry. Larry backed away since he was unsure what the man was going to do. The man opened the door to the pen and whistled for Larry to come out. Larry thought this would be a great opportunity for him to make a break for it. He took a couple hesitant steps, and then sprinted past the man heading towards the open door. Little did Larry know that his short legs were no match for the long legs of the able-bodied man.
The man chased after Larry, and within seconds he had Larry around his belly and carried him back to the barn. He latched a collar around Larry’s neck that was chained around a pen post. Larry closed his eyes as he heard the man shave all of his white fluffy wool off. Once Larry was let loose, he ran away into the field. He reached a tub of water and was shocked at his reflection: a clean shaven, scared little lamb. Larry wailed at this horrible sight. I’m not a lamb anymore! All of my wool is gone. What are the other lambs going to say? I can’t go back. Then the man ushered Larry back into his original barn with all the other animals.
As Larry meandered in, all of the other lambs stopped and stared at the new Larry. Larry’s mother invites him back into their pen where he stayed for about three days. During those three days, Larry was teased for looking different. He looked at all of the other lambs with their wooly coats all warm and white.
On the third day, Larry woke up to a silent barn. He walked up to a pale of water in his pen and looked at himself once more. Again he saw a clean shaven, scared little lamb. Larry began to cry. His mother came up from behind and asked, “Oh Larry, what’s wrong”? “Mom, I hate being different than all the other lambs. They keep making fun of me”, whined Larry. Then his mother explained, “Every lamb gets their wool cut off, there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s okay to be who you are”. After their talk, Larry became more confident about himself. He figured that he should love himself for who he is.
After three days of hiding in his pen, the new confident Larry walked outside into the beautiful weather. He galloped out into the field, breathed in the fresh air and shouted, “Happy Day”!
Larry looked across the field and saw the flock of other lambs. He saw that they were shaven too. They were embarrassed about their looks. Larry wandered over and said they should love themselves too like he did. After, all of the happy lambs played in the field until sundown.