After getting a new fleece on life when a New York City couple took him in, Smokey the lamb takes in the sights as he strolls down Orchard Street.Photo: Chad Rachman
He's been spotted in all kinds of trendy eateries — at Five Leaves in Greenpoint, the Caffe Vita coffee shop and Black Tree restaurant on the Lower East Side.
He's even picked his way through the Union Square Greenmarket.
And each time, he's turned heads. How often do you see a lamb at a restaurant who isn't on the menu?
After a long, mean winter, New York has its first clear harbinger of spring in the form of Smokey the lamb.
Now three weeks old and as soft as your favorite sweater, he's kicked up a flurry of media excitement since a photo of him dining al fresco Tuesday in Williamsburg went viral.
Smokey wasn't dining there a la carte: With him were his foster parents, Maxine Cher and Sandy Dee Hall, who brought him into their Lower East Side apartment when he was 4 days old. It was literally a case of life or death.
Abandoned by his mother, the little lamb had nearly frozen at Violet Hill Farm in West Winfield, NY. The farmer who found him brought him into his home and sat him by the fire until he slowly came back to life. The farmer then called Hall, the 34-year-old chef and co-owner of Black Tree, who orders his porkfrom the farm.
This time, the farmer wasn't calling about a meat order. He'd found lost little lambs before, and when Hall heard about them, he volunteered to take the next one.
Maxine Cher and her lamb wait for the subway, alongside two other blasé New Yorkers.Photo: Chad Rachman
"Sometimes the moms reject lambs, and they don't know why," Hall says. "I'd been wanting to foster one for a while, and he called me up and told me he was bringing down a lamb for me."
They smuggled the little lamb, nestled in a small pan padded with towels, up to Hall's second-floor apartment. (To this day, his landlord has yet to comment.)
That night, Smokey slept like a baby, waking up twice, demanding his bottle.
Cher, 24, Hall's girlfriend of a year, wasn't really sure they were ready to foster such a small, needy creature, no matter how fluffy.
Cher helps Smokey with his drink at a Lower East Side coffee shop.Photo: Chad Rachman (2)
Sandy Dee Hall takes his lamb out for a jog on Orchard Street.Photo: Chad Rachman
"I was like, 'You can't take care of him, he's a baby!' " Cher recalls. "That night I was supposed to go out, but I was like, 'Nope, I'm staying here. Forever.'"
Caring for Smokey requires some doing. Cher, who serves, bartends and manages at Black Tree, works opposite shifts from Hall so that someone's always home with the little guy. That Frank Sinatra song to the contrary, little lambs don't eat ivy — at least not when they're this young. Smokey needs to be bottle-fed three times a day — Violet Hill Farm provides his formula — after which he needs to be burped, just like a human baby, over someone's shoulder.
Smokey also needs regular bathing. "We just take him into the shower with us," Hall says. And they wash him with, yes, Woolite.
"Soap will literally shrink him," Hall says, "just like a wool sweater."
The lamb sleeps about 14 hours a day, sometimes in the couple's bed at their feet. He goes for daily walks, but doesn't need a leash, so attached has he become to his human parents.
Alas, he's not potty-trained, which is why Cher and Hall layer their wood floor with pee pads. "He's more like a baby than a pet," they say.
SNOW LAMB!!
A photo posted by Alena Chinault (@alenachinault) on
When they're not trotting down the streets together, the three of them drive around in Hall's rusty white pickup truck. Smokey usually rides shotgun.
And everywhere the lamb has gone, excitement follows. Not everyone is sure what it is they're seeing.
"A lot of people think he's a goat," says Cher, originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia. "Two people have even asked if he's a kangaroo. New Yorkers aren't familiar with animals."
As if on cue, a woman walks by them. "Oh my God," she exclaims to a friend beside her. "Did you see that llama?"
Cher and Hall also like to drive Smokey around town in their pickup truck. The lamb enjoys riding shotgun.Photo: Chad Rachman
Others, like Scott and Karen Alder, who were visiting from Baltimore, spotted Smokey inside the window at Caffe Vita and thought he was a new poodle hybrid.
Though the Board of Health turns its thumbs down on keeping a sheep in the city, the couple has yet to be fined. (The board prefers to relocate farm animals to licensed sanctuaries.) The only time they've been stopped by police is because the cops want to pet him. (His coat feels like a living wool sweater, and his favorite spots to be scratched are his bottom and behind his ears.)
As attached as they've become to their lamb, Cher and Hall realize he won't be little for long. "He'll grow to be 140 pounds, and his hooves make a lot of noise," Cher says. "In a New York apartment, with neighbors, that just wouldn't work."
Maxine Cher and Smokey pose for a selfie with Angel Disla on the Lower East Side.Photo: Chad Rachman
And so, once Smokey's weaned from the bottle and eating on his own, he'll return to Violet Hill — though the couple plans to formally "adopt" him to protect him from ending up as someone's Easter feast.
Meanwhile, Hall's removed lamb from Black Tree's menu, and Cher's sworn off mutton for life.
Thinking about how little time they have left with the lamb they love causes the couple to choke up. They say fostering Smokey has prepared them for future endeavors, whether it's adopting a dog or cat, and perhaps, someday, even having a baby.
"My maternal instincts are kicking in," Cher confesses.
"I hope I love my future children as much as I love this lamb."
NYC field trips for Smokey
Welcome to New York, Smokey the Lamb! Here are some great places to kick up your hooves before you go back to the farm upstate:
1. The Lambs Club, 132 W. 44th St.
Photo: Joe Kohen
2. The Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg
Photo: Getty Images
3. Sheep Meadow, Central Park, north of the 65th Street Transverse
Photo: Eilon Paz
4. Aqueduct Casino, Rockaway Boulevard, Jamaica
The Resorts World Casino is New York's preferred home for gambling, which is something we humans do instead of gamboling.
5. Sleepy's: The Mattress Professionals (every block in Manhattan)
Photo: Rex Dittman
6. Smiley's Yarns, 92-06 Jamaica Ave., Woodhaven
Face it, New York runs on money. If you don't have any, you have to work whatever angle you've got. At this legendary shop dating back to 1935, they're going to take one look at your fluffy wool and say, "Ooh, tasty." No, don't feel cheap. It could be worse. Lots of newcomers to New York have had to sell more than just their hair to stay in the game. If you don't believe me, consult our sort-of official anthem "Empire State of Mind."
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