The incredible journey: Prickles the Australian sheep returns home after 7 years

After seven years, Prickles the sheep has made a comeback to her home in the Dunalley farm in a rural corner of Tasmania — a place she ran away from during the 2013 Tasmanian bushfires.

Farmer Alice Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Prickles looks a little different now. Prickles had been on the lam(b) for all those years and hadn’t been sheared. 

Prickles is now round like a cotton ball — but one made of merino wool.

But not for long. Now that she is back home, Prickles will be sheered of her massive woolly coat on May 1.

Gray decided to make a competition to guess the weight of Prickles’ fleece to raise money online for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN agency charged with advocating for the world’s refugees.

Gray said her family and Prickles were lucky to be able to self-isolate on a farm in Tasmania.

“It got us thinking about the people in the world who can’t isolate during this COVID-19 crisis, like people in refugee camps,” she said. “The money will go to people who aren’t as fortunate as Prickles.”

So far, the effort has raised close to almost 5,000 Australian dollars — or more than $3,100 US dollars.