Long Time No Shear

Long Time, No Shear (4987 words) by melinoe_writes
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s), Butch/femme - Relationship
Characters: Butch, Original Furry Character(s), Original Trans Character(s)
Additional Tags: Not quite furry but still, Anthro/Human Relationships, Near Future, Sheep, Sheep & Goats, Shearing, Literally a butch lesbian holding down a cute sheep girl to shear her, Awkward Flirting, Awkward Tension, Romantic Comedy, in chapter 2:, Unhealthy Relationships, Break Up Talk, Predator/Prey, Drunkenness, Drunk Texting, Shitty ex tries to rebound
Summary:

After her ex dumps her and bails on a promise to help, Dolly, a sheepish Fae-girl, is desperate for someone to help shear her for the hot summer and really needs them not to be weird about it. But when the saviour that turns up at her door is a super-hot, half-dressed, aussie butch, Dolly has to make sure she isn't weird herself.

Review written in March 2026
I don't really fully get my own relationship to the sheep thing. I don't know if it's a therian thing or a furry thing or just an aesthetic that I have taken and made a part of my identity. It is important to me in some way but like it also feels very constructed—it is meaning that I made for myself in the face of the meaninglessness of the universe. I'm not literally a sheep-person because those don't exist but in a way that feels deeply meaningful I am.

All this to say this story really spoke to me. It's probably not just the sheep thing, it's the trans thing and it's the thing about having an ex with an alcohol problem and it's the awkwardness of intimacy and it's the dating while sitting at the intersections of marginalisation thing. I really like Dolly, I really feel like I get Dolly. I don't know, this one touched my soul. But it isn't just Dolly, both of the other characters feel so potently real.

The prose has a fairly strong voice to it which I really like but it is nonstandard in a way that had me rereading sentences a few times. I don't think it's a bad thing—I think its something you could also say about literally everything I have written—and I did appreciate the way it made me linger in certain moments.