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Lots of cuddles are key for a prospective sheep farmer, who is keen to build a larger flock this spring.
Clyde Primary School pupil Sophie Crane, 9, boasts an impressive seven years’ experience in looking after lambs.
Usually, Sophie could expect to look after two to three lambs from her family’s flock, but this year she was looking to expand her services.
She looked after lambs which had been rejected by their mothers.
"If they have lambs and they don’t want them, I look after them," Sophie said.
This spring, every letterbox on her road, 71 households, received a flyer advertising the quality of her lamb care and wealth of experience.
The flyer was later posted to a local Facebook group, and Sophie was already looking after two lambs as a result.
When asked how many lambs she would like to look after, Sophie threw her arms wide and declared "one hundred".
If she got more lambs than she could manage at once, Sophie said she would call in her friends to help her run a babysitters club for lambs.
The lambs are bottle-fed four times a day for eight weeks before rejoining the wider flock.
Lots of time for playing and cuddling with the lambs was essential, Sophie said.
Cuddling was her favourite thing about looking after them, she said.
Sophie thought some of the lambs might have been nervous before arriving at her house, but lots of cuddles helped them to settle in.
Caring for lambs was good practice for Sophie, as she hoped to be a sheep farmer.
"That would be great."
She said she had learnt lots of parenting skills by looking after the lambs.
"After every spring, I say ‘when are [the lambs] going to coming back?"
It was important to be gentle when working with the lambs, she said.
"And do not neglect them."
This year, Sophie’s younger sister Scarlet, 7, was helping her with the lambs.
Their mum Natalie said looking after lambs was second nature to Sophie.
"She’s got a very caring nature — it’s very natural to her."
"[She] wanted to look after as many as she could this year, so she thought she would make up a flyer to let people know she was willing to look after them."
