About 30 years ago, travelling with my father out of Aberdeen in the evening rush hour, we were stuck in a line of slow moving traffic behind an open-backed Land Rover with a sheep sitting there looking at us!
We were a tad un-nerved by this but the critter seemed quite content to trundle along at 5mph. It was only when the blockage cleared, somewhere out past Bucksburn, and everyone picked up speed, that Shaun decided he didn't like 35mph and took a flying leap on to our car's bonnet!
My father's splendid reflexes kicked in and he braked safely to a stop. Amazingly, we weren't hit from behind, either. The sheep slid off the bonnet as we came to a halt and lay in the road looking vaguely stunned. The Land Rover's driver realised he was missing his cargo and backed up, got out the cab and accused us of running over his sheep!
A slightly mad ten minutes followed until Grampian police showed up. Names and details were taken and, aside from a sheep shaped dent, the car was undamaged so we got on our way. The car we were in was actually a garage courtesy car as my dad's own vehicle was in for service. We explained the dent to the manager and everything was handled by their insurers. I would love to have seen that correspondence!
We heard later that the Land Rover driver was prosecuted and fined for having an insecure load or some such thing. Apparently he said in his defence that he'd been transporting sheep this way for 20 years and nothing like it had ever happened before!
I still have the occasional nightmare about low-flying sheep!
