Little Lamb Making Quite The Impression On NYC Streets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – You see a lot of wild things on the streets of New York City, and on the Lower East Side there's a little lamb that's getting a lot of attention.
As CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported, Smokey is becoming quite the star.
"It felt kind of biblical, kind of a nativity scene type situation," Annie Flom said.
"I don't know, chill. I love lambs," Mimi Goldstein said.
Maxine Cher is Smokey's foster mother. He was born just a few weeks ago at Violet Hill Farm in upstate New York, but was rejected by his mother.
"They sense that something is wrong with them or you know, they're the runt of the litter," Cher said. "They can't feed so then they get really cold. This guy was actually freezing to death."
Cher and her boyfriend took in the then-4-day-old lamb and started caring for him in their apartment.
Smokey is now out of diapers, because he doesn't like them, but he's not quite potty-trained.
"It's just constant cleaning and attention and cuddling and feeding," Cher said.
Smokey gets formula from a bottle three times a day. Since he goes all over the place with his foster parents, he's become a social media sensation and even has his own hashtag, #Smokeydalamb.
Cher said it takes forever to walk anywhere with him.
"Everyone's stopping, everyone's asking questions," she said.
Smokey has made some friends along the way, including a dog named Arthur.
"The first time, he definitely sniffed him and couldn't stop just to see what he was all about and now I think it's just turned more to jealousy since he gets so much attention now," Arthur's owner Nadia Ahwal said.
Once Smokey is old enough to eat on his own, he'll heading back to the farm, but his New York City parents plan to keep tabs on him and make sure he lives a very full life -- which means he won't end up being someone's dinner.
Having a lamb is against the city's Health Department rules. Smokey is likely to return to the farm in about two weeks.
