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Lamb Spotted Eating at Greenpoint Restaurant Now Causing Trouble Upstate

By Serena Dai | October 8, 2015 7:49am | Updated on October 8, 2015 10:23am

You can take the lamb out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the lamb.

An adorable lamb that turned heads when it was spotted dining al fresco at a Greenpoint restaurant is now romping around an upstate farm — and causing trouble while he's there.

Black Tree executive chef Sandy Dee Hall and his girlfriend Maxine Cher adopted the lamb this spring when it was less than a week old, bottle-feeding the animal and taking it around New York.

 

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They named him Smokey and he quickly earned Internet fame after a Greenpoint resident spotted the couple dining with him at Bedford Avenue restaurant Five Leaves.

But Smokey's popularity came at a price. A city official called Black Tree and asked that Hall get rid of the illegal pet.

Cher and Hall, who adopted Smokey from Violet Hill Farm in West Winfield, N.Y., sent Smokey back to the farm, where the now 7-month-old runs around with all the other animals, Hall said.

"The farm is a multi-animal farm. They're pretty awesome," he said. "They just wander around the whole property. Cows and pigs and chicken and geese."

But Smokey, who's identified by green spray-paint on his fur, has proven himself to be a troublemaker among his fellow sheep, said Hall, who visits him regularly.

He wanders more than the others, encroaching on neighboring properties and breaking fences along the way, he said.

"He tends to be a little more exploratory."

 

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Smokey has also been befriending animals outside of his own kind.

"He had a ram buddy that he was hanging out with hardcore," Hall said.

All of the male sheep at Violet Hill are raised for meat, but Smokey's been marked to live a long life, added Hall, who noted that he doesn't serve any baby animals at Black Tree.

In fact, Smokey's already about ready to start producing children and grandchildren.

"He’ll live 'til he’s killed from old age," Hall said.

 

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