Maabee, a bum little lamb who sometimes goes by Fatty, was brought along to brighten a day. 

The pint-sized ewe did her job. The intended recipient of the lamb-brightened visit was 93-year-old Mickey Thoman, a resident of the South Lincoln Nursing Center in Kemmerer, who’d spent a lifetime working with lambs and loving animals. But there were other beneficiaries.

“The nurses said it’s the whole nursing home, the lamb just completely brightens their day,” Laurie Thoman, Mickey’s daughter, said.  

Maabee’s visits became repeated. Home-raised by Mickey’s granddaughter, 14-year-old Taylor Thoman, the diaper-clamb bum was plucked from the flock because she was part of a litter of triplets — too much for even the most dedicated of ewes to sustain. 

It was this spring when Taylor first got the idea to take Maabee to see grandma.

Taylor Thoman, 14, loads up Maabee the bum lamb and Twinkle the border collie, on her way to go see grandma, Mickey Thoman. (Laurie Thoman)

“I thought, ‘She’s kind of like a little Easter egg, we should take her,’” Taylor said. 

The powers that be pushed back initially, but the strong-willed teenager won out. 

“I was like, ‘No, we’re gonna do it.’” Taylor said. 

Mickey got some hints that a surprise was on its way. 

“She was pretty excited,” Laurie recalled. And Mickey was curious: “She was like, ‘Can I use it? Will it stay here? Can I eat it?’” 

In a handful of visits to the nursing home up on a hill in Kemmerer, Maabee had an adventure or two. There was a diaper change that rained lamb pellets onto the floor, and another time when she went missing and was found down the hall in another resident’s room getting some pets. 

That was the biggest benefit of Maabee’s visits: Brightened days.

Lincoln County rancher Mickey Thoman, left, spent a lifetime working with and loving animals. She had a severe stroke two days before her 93rd birthday last fall, and beat the odds to stay alive. (Laurie Thoman)

“They just love the lamb,” Laurie said. “They’d adore the lamb and pet the lamb and coo over the lamb — and they all ask, ‘Where’s the lamb?’” 

Mickey included. Raised on a homestead, any animal will brighten the Thoman matriarch’s day.

“That’s all she ever lived for, was animals,” Laurie said of her mom. “She’d walk five miles to ride a horse one mile, she just loved them so much.”

Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson...

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