Baby Goats!

Thursday was quite the afternoon for baby goats. Apparently around 1 pm, Gigi started to give birth. I was working from home and Mindy and the kids were out. It was drizzling out and I noticed that Lucy, our English Shepherd, was not up on the deck. When I called her, she barked at me from the goat pasture where she was sitting in the rain in front of the goat shed and refused to budge - she was in guardian mode. Lucy NEVER goes into the goat pasture on her own, so I figured something was up. When I got there, I saw the 2 babies, both still wet from the birth and since Harriet was cleaning one of them off, I assumed she had given birth. Of course it became pretty obvious what was going on when I went inside. So, I ran back, grabbed some clean towels, fresh straw, warm water and feed and helped Gigi clean them and dry them off. Two very healthy girls. Great black and white markings. The babies took to nursing right away and Gigi seemed more agitated by Lucy's and my presence - she actually tried to butt me several times and caught me in the arm with one of her horns (ouch!). Back up to the house we went. When I came back down to look in on her, there was Harriet in the adjoining stall cleaning off two more beautiful baby does - black with white bands. Now Harriet, who gets easily agitated the rest of the year, turns into the sweetest thing when she gives birth. We cleaned up her kids and moved all three into the large stall with Gigi and her twins. Two mamas and 4 baby girls.



jim