This is a symbolic piece for the sheep – and for people as well.
Think of the result of a knitting sheep being surprised by a blast from a foghorn right beside it. It’s similar to the reaction of a nation to daily news of disasters, rising prices, declining home prices, terror alerts and anything else the news media deems appropriate for general information accumulation. The effect is one of not being able to turn or touch ground – at which point the best course of defense is to just let it go and smile anyway. Sheep are usually right.