A New Life!

Wow. The last few days have been exciting ones, to say the least!  On Monday we became responsible for the care of a new momma goat.  On Tuesday, she gave us quite a scare when she ran away for two hours.  Then on Wednesday, the excitement continued. 

We had left the house for a few hours to take care of some errands.  As we returned and pulled back into the yard, a somewhat unusual sight greeted me. One dog ran out to greet us, the other, Ms. Annie was crouched down over by the steps looking at us anxiously.  At first I wondered why.  Then one glance to the side of the steps let me know why she looked so anxious.  Apparently UPS had delivered a package while we were gone.  It was a book that I had ordered online.  Ms. Annie evidently thought it was her duty to open the package for me. 

And instead of reading the book, she began to eat it!

The book was torn in a hundred pieces.  The binding was completely removed and chewed thoroughly.  A very guilty look was on Annie's face.  She knew she had done wrong.  So, we picked up all the pieces to the book as we could, and carried inside to try to tape it back together as best we could.  I was so upset with Annie that I couldn't even discipline her.  I left that up to the kids who took her outside and explained to her quite well how bad this was! 

I guess Ms. Annie thought she was doing me a great favor by opening the package for me, but instead of reading it, she ate it. We hope she learned from this experience to never, ever do this again!  One can always hope!

 

So while I was trying to piece together my book, the kids ran out to check on momma goat.  We got a frantic call from Ryan saying that momma had had her baby while we'd been gone!

Oh my!  So we ran out to the goat pen to meet the newest addition to our family...

He was just the cutest little thing, and couldn't have been more than a few minutes old! Momma goat was quite proud of herself, and let us ooh and aww over the cute little guy!

We got a heat lamp set up for him so he wouldn't be cold out in the shed and brought in some fresh water for Ginger. She drank in about two minutes flat two margarine tubs full of water!  She even let me pet and love on her!

We covered the floor of the shed in hay. We didn't have the goat pen ready for a baby,and this was all a surprise to us, because we didn't think Ginger was due for several more weeks.  However, my neighbor came over to see the baby and Ginger, and she said the other goat that had been bred the same time as Ginger....  was also in labor.  So, apparently, it was just time for our sweet little baby to be born!

Momma Ginger and baby were doing just fine.  We decided to leave them alone for a while, and let them bond, and let baby nurse.  It was hard to leave, because it was so sweet to watch them together! 

This is a picture of the little baby after spending a night getting used to living in a goat pen instead of momma's tummy!  He was moving around and wagging his tail whenever he was petted, and whenever he was drinking. What a cutie!

Unfortunately, because he is a boy, the kids won't be able to show him in 4H.  Only female goats are allowed to be shown in 4H.  Our neighbor told us that more than likely he will be sold once he is weaned.  Sad to say, there are not many options for a boy goat :(  However, it is still a great experience for our kids to have to take care of this momma and her baby.  We are now going to have to find two baby female goats somewhere soon for their 4H project.  Our neighbor is hoping that her goats that she still has will have some more female goats.  But for now, we are doing our best to care for Ginger and her little one.  The miracle of new life never ceases to amaze me!