I shore a pet for a neighbour last week in exchange for the wool. It took a bit longer than five minutes to shear though, as the sheep is huge wether ( desexed ram ) that is fed a bucket of pellets each day and weighed around 100 - `120 kg.........

Another neighbour had a property that adjoined a rangy, scrubby mountain. There was a single feral sheep that lived on the mountain and used to get through the fences occasionally onto his property. He managed to round it up into a yard one day and asked me to come over and shear it. It had 3 or 4 years wool on and looked like a cotton ball on legs. The sheep was fairly wild and took 20 minutes to shear. It was half the size when we finished.

We gave it a full veterinary work over, worm treatment, lice treatment, foot trim etc. and then he let it go, back to its mountain. Every twelve months or so the neighbour would catch it again and call me over to shear it and give it a check up. This went on until the sheep was very old with no teeth left etc. The sheep doesnt call into the neighbours anymore, but I like to think he lived a long and healthy life on his mountain, with beautiful views over the green valley and creek below.