John Perriam, the owner of Bendigo Station and Shrek’s “human father”, described it as “just an ordinary day out mustering”.
“Ann Scanlan [a shepherd on the station] came running down the hill saying she’d seen this big woolly.
“Woolies are quite worthless really, they’re a bit of an embarrassment.
“Anne was a very good musterer and she wanted to save him and take him down, because he wouldn’t have survived the winter up on the hill.”
It was a good thing too, because once the world got a glimpse of Shrek, there was no looking back, he said.
“Stephen Jaquiery [now illustrations editor at the Otago Daily Times] came down and shot a photo that made the front page of the ODT and it went around the world overnight.”
The story, Mr Perriam said, changed his life.
“We got on what you’d call a corporate treadmill.
“He became a superstar and we flew all over New Zealand raising funds for Cure Kids.
“It was a fantastic journey to raise all those funds for children with disabilities and diseases, Cure Kids do a fantastic job,’’ he said.
“We got too meet everyone from the prime minister to the rich and famous, everybody wanted to be part of the story.
“We had a parliamentary presentation with Shrek and Helen Clark said that she ‘goes all over the world’ and everywhere she goes ‘that blasted sheep’ gets there before she does.’’
“Being in the hills that long we thought he would be wild, but once he was shorn in front of a billion people his personality really came out.
“He trusted me, he trusted old people and children, it was almost biblical the way he wanted to give back to people.
“That trust he had went all the way to shearing him on an iceberg and shearing him on the top of the Sky Tower.
“He had no qualms about leading us through crowds of people on aeroplanes or on to escalators and he was always the first one into corporate lounges,’’ Mr Perriam said.
One of Mr Perriam’s most special memories from his time with Shrek was taking him to elderly homes and hospitals.
“To see these people that were bedridden just bursting into tears when he marched into this rooms it made every bit of time I gave worthwhile.
“It would be one of the proudest things I’ve done in my life,’’ he said.
“I was with him every day for at least six or seven years, he didn’t live in a paddock, he lived in a purpose built ram shed, with his own veranda and showroom.
Shrek lived on a low protein diet of oats, salt block, lucerne mix and clean water, he said.
“We’re pretty sure there’s a big lesson in that because he lived to 16 or 17 years old.”
Shrek was put down in 2011 on veterinarian’s advice having lived almost twice his life expectancy and since 2014, his remains have been on display in Te Papa in Wellington.
