We have babies!!!

    

 With Covid and my own health issues I lost 4 goats last year.  This did not happen all at once but over 6 months. I had decided I was not going to get anymore goats as the pain of loosing them was overwhelming.  They are pretty hardy but once you notice them off by any way shape or form you have a very small window of time to save the.. Goats being prey animals do not show signs of illness until the last minute, weakness will get them killed in the wild so they hide it well. One minute they seem fine and the next they down and when they go down it is really hard to save them.

    I am so new to goats and our vets in town are not able to treat goats as I learned the hard way.  So I had to become a Google Vet. In the middle of a crises you just can't start googling symptoms and hope you have meds or things to help you through to a good outcome. Now add to this I had my hip replaced so a week in hospital and house confinement till I could walk without a walker was another 2 months, Rehab and you get the problem. I had a neighbor coming down to feed, water and put them up at night 3 times a day but she did not know the subtle things that let you know there was something wrong. 

    Now its summer and I just have two goats and they hang around and it seems like they are board. I was missing the whole goat mischief and the horse was not playing it just was not the same.  A friend had to remind me that farm life means you have live stock and dead stock it is just part of the farm life. I was seeing all the baby goats on social media and it tugged at me. I caved and decided to get a goat.  

    I love the babies but to have them born here is scary because I do not have what it takes to snap on the latex and go in after a breach baby goat. That is the one thing I can not take a chance on happening to me.  I also did not have hundreds of dollars to spend on a goat and searching for a cheap goat is chancy.  Location is also important, Island life is great but it does have its draw backs. So just watching social media and waiting is what you have to do.  

    Then the end of May I seen the post of a farmer down sizing his herd and he live 75 miles from  me.  I contacted him and he sent pics and I fell for a 3 month old black and white doe. I took the next Sat. and drove down to get the goat.  On the way down I was thinking this baby was going to be with two old fuddy duddy goats and wasn't sure if she would liven them up or they would put her to sleep.  I got there and the farmer was trying to catch her and she was staying very close to her Mom making it difficult to separate them. Broke my heart so I told the farmer I would take Mom also.  As they were being caught and put in the kennels for their ride back I seen this little taupe colored goat with the most amazing ice blue eyes and horns. I love the horns and their blue eyes are to die for. As I am making a fuse over this goat the farmer  says she is also going to be cut. I caved and said put her in too.  Now I am on my way home with 3 goats instead of one.  They did make the other 2 goats more active and a the horse was coming back to his playful self.  

    Three weeks go by and a couple of the kids came for a visit.  We love the big ships so we spent a couple hours watching ships, went into town to mess around and was gone for half the day.  The girls wanted to see the sun set so I told them I needed to get home and  put the animals up and we could run back down to watch the sun set.  We hurried home and the girls fed chickens and I rounded up the goats.  I was standing in the middle of the barn yard and realized I was missing a goat. It took a few seconds to figure out who was missing.  Miss Blue eyes was missing.  I started scanning the area looking for her.  I found her under the big pine trees in the pasture just standing there with two kittens.  As soon as that thought came in my head the reality of those are not kittens took over.  OMG! she had babies. My drama side kicked in and I started yelling for the girls to get out back.  I was in total disbelief because I did not know she was even pregnant. All looked Ok one of the babies was almost dry and the other one was still wet. The dry one was a little bigger than the wet one and was nursing. I did not see the wet one nurse yet and knew that it is so import for the new born to get moms colostrum. I was not prepared for this so I went off to get a place in the barn for Mom and babies.  I kicked Elliott out of his stall and put fresh bedding down and got clean water and hay for Mom.  I sent the girls down to see the sun set as it was getting late and I watch to see if the little goat nursed.  I tried to get the baby to nurse but I was not having luck. The girls came back and I yelled get me a YouTube video on how to milk a goat. The three of us stood in the barn watching a video on how to milk a goat and then tried our luck on Mamma goat. I had one of the girls hold the goat and I tried to get milk from Mamma.  My daughter does not like horns so she said Mom let me try and you hold the goat. We did manage to get some milk and then used an eye dropper to get it in the baby. That night I did not sleep because every hour I was in the barn checking on the babies.  The next morning I seen the smaller baby was nursing on his own.  I did relax knowing that they where eating and Mom was taking care of them because Mom was only 10 months old herself according to the farmer. 

    I have become very vigilant with the goats so I don't loose anymore.  The babies grew up to be cutest little blue eyed horned buckling's.   One is dark chocolate brown and one is Black both have ice blue eyes and horns. They have added so much fun to the herd and the farm. As the islanders learned of the baby goats the farm became very busy last summer with visitors to see the babies. 

    I went to get one goat came back with three ended up with 5. Now my little herd of 7 fills my days with mischief and fun.