Aliyah and Phoebe and the Shorn Sheep Mystery

Once upon a time, a long time ago there was a big girl named Aliyah who had a pet poodle named Phoebe. Aliyah and her poodle Phoebe both loved ice cream. They loved every kind of ice cream. They loved vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream. They loved cookies and cream ice cream and mint chip ice cream. One time they visited a Garlic Festival where they tried Garlic Pistachio ice cream and they even loved that. They loved ice cream if it was in a cup, and they loved ice cream if it was on a cone. They loved ice cream squished between cookies, on top of a pie, wrapped up in mochi, or in a cup all by itself. They loved soft squishy ice cream that comes all swirly from a machine, and they loved ice cream right out of the freezer and so hard that you have to pry it out of the carton with a knife and bite into it with your teeth.

Aliyah and her poodle Phoebe both loved ice cream, and it’s a good thing they did, because if they didn’t love ice cream so much they might never have discovered Phoebe’s weird super power. Every time Phoebe licked ice cream, her fur would grow - A LOT! You might not think this was a super power, but there’s a lid for every pot, and this is the story of one winter when Phoebe’s super power became very useful indeed. 

Aliyah had an auntie who ran her own sheep farm in Ireland, and one year during her winter holiday from school Aliyah went to stay with her auntie and help out on the farm. Phoebe came along with her, and there were lots of jobs for them to do on the farm. Their favorite job was helping to move the sheep from pasture to pasture so that they would have lots of fresh, lush grass to eat. Aliyah loved to watch the sheep’s wool rippling as they moved across the pastures, and Phoebe loved to run around and pretend to be one of the sheep dogs herding the sheep. One day, Aliyah noticed something strange about one of the sheep - it was missing all of its wool! Aliyah tried to ask the sheep what happened to its wool but it just looked up at her with it’s calm sheep eyes and blinked. Phoebe tried to ask another sheep but it just wiggled it’s soft sheep lips at her and said “baah.” Aliyah and Phoebe brought the wool-less sheep into the barn so it wouldn’t be too cold. The next day, two more sheep were missing their wool! Aliyah and Phoebe tried to ask them what happened to their wool but “baah” said the first sheep and “baah said the second one” shivering a bit. “Baah” “Baah” “Baah” said the other sheep. Aliyah and Phoebe made a plan to stay up the next night to watch the sheep and see who was taking their wool. 

That night after dinner, they went to the pasture where the sheep were staying. Aliyah brought a big sleeping bag to stay warm, and for Phoebe she borrowed one of her auntie’s sweatshirts and cinched it around the waist with some rope so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground. They looked very silly but they were warm enough and settled in to watch the sheep for the night. A couple hours went by and nothing happened. Aliyah and Phoebe looked at eachother and shrugged, but they kept watching. Phoebe snuggled in to Aliyah’s lap to stay warm and kept watching. A few more hours went by and still nothing. Aliyah and Phoebe looked at each other and yawned. By the time the sun began to rise over the hills they had not seen anything unusual, and no sheep had lost their wool. Thinking perhaps the wool thief had given up, they spent the next night inside only to wake and find that in the morning three new sheep were missing their wool! “Baah” said the first sheep. “Baah” said the second sheep. “Baah” said the third sheep. Space in the barn was getting tight. The mystery needed to be solved and it was clear that the thief would not show themselves if Aliyah and Phoebe seemed to be in the field. What could they do?

Aliyah felt bad for the sheep that had lost their wool - if only there were a way to grow it back quickly so that they could go out to join their friends and munch on the lush green grass. That was when it hit her - sheep need a whole year to grow their wool, but Phoebe could grow her curly white poodle hair in minutes by licking ice cream! The wool thief wouldn’t come if they thought that Aliyah and Phoebe were there, but what if Phoebe looked like a sheep? Aliyah got ten euros from her change purse and they walked the mile to the closest shop and bought all the ice cream they could afford. Although it was cold out they shared the ice cream and Phoebe licked and licked until her short, curly white fur grew as long as a border collie’s, then as long as a Shih Tzu, and finally as long as a fluffy white sheep’s wool in winter. 

That night after dinner, Phoebe went out to the field to mingle with the sheep and after a short time even the sheep seemed to think that she was one of them. Aliyah, sleepy from their stakeout the previous night, went up to her room and to bed but not before tying a bit of wool yarn around her wrist and dangling the end of it out the window of her second story bedroom and down to the floor, so that Phoebe could wake her if there was any sign of the thief. Phoebe closed her eyes and fell deeply deeply asleep, and dreamed she was leaping among the clouds, some made of wool, some of ice cream, and some of cotton candy but she could never tell what a cloud would be made of until she had landed on it. She was just starting to figure out how to know what a cloud was before leaping when a wisp of wool from the cloud she was on caught her hand and held her back, then started pulling. It pulled her down, down, right through the bottom of the cloud and she woke up in her bedroom in her aunt’s house in Ireland. It was early in the morning, perhaps 4am, and she was being tugged by the bit of yarn around her wrist. Aliyah looked down and saw Phoebe, looking for all the world like a sheep, turning very dog-like circles on the ground down below and tugging the bit of wool. “Come on! Come see!” Quickly Aliyah untied the yarn from her wrist, put on her coat and boots, grabbed a torch, and quietly went outside. 

When Aliyah got outside, Phoebe said to follow her and they went quickly walking past the field of sheep, the light from Aliyah’s torch bouncing along as it lit the path ahead of them. As they walked, Phoebe told the story of what she had seen in the field that night. Just after midnight, when all was quiet, Phoebe had been huddled among the sheep pretending to sleep when she had seen some movement in the darkness at the corner of the field. She watched as a pair of red foxes approached one of the sleeping sheep and quietly began to cut away its wool. When they were done, they began to drag it away and she followed them far enough to see where they brought it to their den. Now Aliyah and Phoebe were on their way to the den to find out what business a pair of red foxes could possibly have with all that wool. 

By the time they arrived to the den, the sun was just starting to come up on the horizon. Aliyah crouched down beside the fox den and cleared her throat. The father fox came out of the den looking very stern and told Aliyah and Phoebe to go and find their own place, as the den was occupied. 

“This den is occupied. I’ll thank you to move along and leave us in peace” said the fox. 

Aliyah nodded and said politely, “Pardon the intrusion Mr. Fox, but my dog Phoebe and I are here investigating the mysterious shearing of several sheep over the past week. It seems that you have been stealing sheep’s wool to bring back to your den, and we’d like to understand why.”

Well the fox looked a bit sheepish and it seemed like he might have tried to deny his involvement, but as there were still bits of wool caught in his fur it was plain to everyone what had happened. The remaining question was: why? 

“Yes well . . .” said the fox . . . “Well you see . . . The thing is . . .”

“You see,” said Aliyah, “as it’s still winter the sheep very much still need their wool to keep them warm. The barn in starting to fill up with shorn sheep, and if there are many more we wouldn’t know what to do for them. So we’d like to understand why you’re taking their wool so that we can come up with a plan that works for everyone.”

At this the fox seemed to be slightly relieved and he said, “It’s to stop the fox hunt!”

“The fox hunt?” said Aliyah.

“Yes,” said the fox. Every winter, people come to this area with dogs and horses and they chase after foxes” the fox said. “It’s never bothered me too much I’m much to clever and fast to be caught, but now things have changed.” At that moment a baby fox peeked its nose out of the den, and then another, and another, and another. There were ten fox kits living in the den along with the mother fox. 

The mother fox said, “We have our family to think of now and the kits are too young to run from dogs, so when fox hunting season started we knew we had to come up with a plan. We’re using the wool to fashion costumes for our kits, so that if a hunting dog were to come across them they would look like little lambs. Dogs protect sheep, so they wouldn’t dare hurt our family if they thought they were lambs.”

Aliyah didn’t say this but although the kits looked very cute indeed in their sheeps’ clothing, she wasn’t sure there were all that convincing as lambs. Still, the mother and father fox were right that these kits would need to be protected. She thanked the foxes for trusting her enough to share their problem, and said that if they could promise not to steal any more wool she would make sure that there would be no fox hunting on the farm. The foxes agreed, and Aliyah and Phoebe said there farewells and went straight to the wood shop to make good on their promise. With her aunt’s permission, Aliyah painted a series of wooden signs to post all around the area “Posted: Sheep’s Clothing Animal Sanctuary - Fox Hunting Strictly Prohibited.” To this day, Aliyah’s auntie’s farm remains a safe haven for foxes and all creatures, and no one has ever stolen her sheeps’ wool again.