Video of Vet Tech Dancing with Little Lamb Is Perfect Pick-Me-Up
Does your workload seem a little wild-and-wooly this week? Feel like every home and family issue in the world has been flocking your way lately?
Don’t let all that stress get your goat. Ursula is here to make you grin.
If you haven’t yet encountered Ursula, don’t feel sheepish. But you should be aware she’s the baaa-baaa-breakout star of a viral video recently posted by Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center in Longview, Texas.
According to the Longview News-Journal, this joyous little one-minute snippet was captured on a whim. Though once it debuted on Facebook, it became one of the facility’s most popular posts ever.
It all started unassumingly enough, toward the end of a typical workday. Shelter director Chris Kemper explained that vet technician Erin Dryden often lets her sweet pet lamb, Ursula, tag along on the job.
Kemper said that Dryden adopted Ursula at birth. And apparently, this fleecy little gal is capable of some pretty fancy footwork.
“She’s like a puppy, but she gets excited and she starts jumping,” he said.
Kemper was simply strolling out of an office, when he spotted Ursula skipping along with lead animal care technician Nina Allen. She and the spirited lamb were hoofing it down the surgery hallway in his general direction.
So Kemper quickly grabbed his phone and captured the adorable scene as it unfolded.
Later that same evening, Allen paired the resulting footage with a disco jingle. And you might say a mutton music video was born.
Allen immediately shared the finished product with Kemper. “Our thought was, ‘Let’s just post this. It will make some people laugh, and it keeps us in the Facebook cycle until the next morning,’” he said.
Kemper added that his team is always looking for fun snippets people can start sharing overnight. But boy oh boy, were they ever surprised the following day.
The Longview News-Journal reports that almost immediately, local ABC affiliate KLTV requested permission to share the video. Not long after, Raycom Media (now Gray Television), KLTV’s parent company, introduced it to a national audience.
In well under an hour, the shelter began seeing enthusiastic likes and shares from all across the United States.
Then, as even more media outlets picked up the video, thousands of new viewers began checking out the shelter’s Facebook page.
Kemper said his team is now focused on transforming all that increased social media activity into new animal adoptions. “We want people in driving distance — Shreveport, Tyler, Dallas, wherever — we want them to think, ‘Wow, I’m going to drive to that facility because they care about what they’re doing,’” Kemper said. “That’s what we hope the outcome is.”
But if you take a moment to watch this jubilant hallway hoedown, you’ll see that Ursula herself only cares about celebrating the moment. And that’s a pretty powerful takeaway, too.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
