gentle, soft, fragrent, docile animals

Yes, which is why we have the term "like sheep to slaughter".

There must be something tranquilizing about sheep, de Troy. People count sheep to fall asleep.

When we do something "sheepishly", we are reluctant to do it at all.

Is it perhaps that sheep are the terrestrial equivalent of fleecy white clouds?

Ah, but, did you have to mention "fragrant", de Troy?

Like most things revered in our imagination, they are best revered from afar ... in a well-ventilated meadow beneath a sky ascudder with clouds, pillow-soft, billowing, azure blue grazing, fleecy white clouds.