GIBSIDE, UK  - The Brits are breeding Geep!

Half sheep, half goat.  Yup.   That is what farmer Ian Bramley thought when he discovered his ewe had just given birth to a hybrid.

While it sounds bizarre, the genetic fluke is officially known as a “geep”.

“One of the boys told me the lamb had arrived,” Mr. Bramley said.

“It was dark, and I went into the paddock looking for her mother and she had this little black and white bundle.

“We don’t get black and white lambs, and as soon as I felt it I knew it didn’t have wool, it had hair.

“I said its father must be a goat.”

Proving to be more than just the black sheep of the family, the geep, named Oreo, was born to a sheep but is a genetic throwback from its father – a ram with goat genes.

Oreo and her mother, Floss, are among a menagerie of animals on loan to  FallyFarm, a pre-school and long day care centre in Gibside, England, from nearby farms.

The ram’s owner said he had been told it had goat genes “somewhere along its line” – sheep have 54 chromosomes, goats 60 – but in the genetic lottery Oreo came out fairly evenly split.

Oreo runs like a goat and has a goat’s face and feet but a sheep’s build.

What makes Oreo more remarkable is the embryo of a sheep-goat pairing generally dies in utero or is stillborn.

Fallyfoot supervisor Cindy Wilton  said Oreo’s remarkable birth took everyone by surprise.

“We jumped online to research it and discovered, while it is rare it can happen,” she said.

“We had another sheep who had a lamb but Oreo was six weeks later and we learned goats’ gestation is typically about six weeks longer than sheep.”

Since this happened – five months ago – British geneticists have figured out how to breed geep and they are… “furiously breeding as many geep as possible.”

“Brits have always led the way when it comes to goat and sheep and now… we want to rule the world when it comes to geep.”

At least they have something…

DETROIT, MI – As the stock market continues to tumble and oil prices jumping nearly 20 dollars a barrel in the last week, GM announces plans for new hybrid to run on renewable resources of Fairy Dust and Unicorn Tears.

Expected in Q3 of 2009, GM says they have been developing the technology for the past 5 years, but have waited to announce the revolutionary automobile until it was closer to becoming a reality.   The yet to be named automobile is known internally as “Codename Twinkle.”

GM CEO Rick Wagoner told reporters at this morning’s press conference, “We’ve been working really closely with the Fairy and Unicorn community.  We’re confident this new automobile will be a relief to consumers being drained at the pump as well as bringing Fairies and Unicorns back into the mainstream automobile market.”

Consumers might remember the short-lived sedan PD-30, short for Pixie Dust, 30 Miles produced by Ford in the early ’90s.  The first Fairy Dust powered hybrid vehicle was a commercial success but quickly pulled from the market under pressure from Big Oil.

This is the first time Unicorn Tears will be utilized in a consumer automobile.  The Teamsters have long been rumored to use a mixture of diesel and Unicorn Tears to fuel their trucks.

Wagoner commented, “Based on mythology, you wouldn’t think that Unicorn’s cry as much as they do.  They have this reputation for prancing on rainbows all the time.  But they are really sensitive, introspective creatures.  They listen to a lot of The Cure and Bright Eyes.”

The timing of the announcement has been noted as extremely strategic, as GM sales were drastically declining in China.

“The Qilin, the Chinese equivalent of the Western unicorn, is revered as a sacred pet of the deities,” said an industry expert. “To drive a car associated with prosperity… Chinese consumers are going to buy them right up!”