Surprise #1
I am use to Little Bit taking off now and then so when I
did not see her on Feb. 25 I did not think anything of it. But as each day passed and Little Bit did not
make a showing, my concern grew. Usually
she was only gone a day at a time. Two
days is usually the max. So when an
entire week passed and still no Little Bit I was pretty sure the worse had occurred. Little Bit and her sister Tiger, who
thankfully is a home body, are barn cats.
They have access to a cabin where food, water, and pillows for sleeping
on are available, but they are free to roam anywhere they wish.
There is risk to any animal living outside, which
includes the cats. So when Little Bit
was not seen for an entire week I knew in my heart she probably had become
someone’s lunch. The thought really saddened
me but I have always known that is a risk.
I grieved for a few days for my kitty and then moved on with life. I still had Tiger and there is always lots of
work to do around here.
Little Bit had not been seen for 13 days when I went
outside the front door one evening, stopping in my tracks. Was I dreaming? A few yards from the steps, I saw Tiger and
Little Bit sniffing each other. Little
Bit was not injured or skinny. Where
ever she had been she had been eating.
Surprise #2
We never witnessed the act, but by December we were positive
our Boer doe, Lawn Mower, was pregnant and very suspicious Bambi, our dairy doe,
was also pregnant. As time passed Lawn
Mower grew larger and showed many signs that she would probably kid in early
March. Around February 10 her udder
started filling up, a sure sign she would soon be kidding. Bambi on the other hand, who is a much
smaller and younger goat, was just starting to develop baby bumps by the end of
February. The evidence was clear. We were 100% positive Lawn Mower would kid first
and Bambi would follow second.
On March 7 around 10am I decided to take some treats out
to the goats. I was half way to the goat
enclosure when I noticed Bambi curled up sound to sleep. The fact she was sleeping so soundly I found
troubling. I am use to her lying down
chewing the cud but it is rare for her to be out cold like that. As I continued to walk closer to the
enclosure my eyes feel upon a small black object. It didn’t take me long to realize what it
was. Bambi had kidded.
I quickly returned to the house, grabbed my camera and
told Rick to get his shoes on, and back outside I went. As we approached the fence Bambi woke up,
along with her new little baby girl, who we later decided to name Susanna. Bambi was found in the road by a friend and
raised by humans, but that has not prevented her from knowing how to be a good
mommy. Bambi is doing an excellent job
of raising her little girl.
Bambi looks tell us she is part Nubian and Alpine, both
of which are dairy breeds. She is also
very small and appears to have some pygmy, or some other small breed of goat,
in her ancestry as well. Dairy goats
must be milked, so that afternoon I found a video on how to milk a goat and
have been milking Bambi every since.
Since Bambi is so small and I am allowing her to feed her baby 24/7, I am
not getting that much milk. By the time
Susanna is weaned I hope to have Bambi use to the activity and I should be
getting a decent amount of milk by then.
Lawn Mower is still pregnant and though she is huge and
looks very uncomfortable is showing no signs of going into labor.
Unexpected Turn:
Our Spanish buck, Midnight was only two weeks old when he
came to live here. He was so cute I
could not see ever getting rid of him.
But all cute babies eventually grow up.
Midnight shared the goat enclosure with both does until sometime in
January, when the situation became intolerable.
The problem with Midnight is he is an intact buck and well, he started
acting more and more like a buck. Last
fall, literally overnight he went from smelling like a goat to stinking like a
buck. When bucks go into rut they stink. Female goats apparently find the odor very romantic
but not humans. Thankfully Midnight only
stunk for a month but I am told it gets worse as they age. But like all boys do, Midnight suddenly
became very interested in the girls and started harassing them more and
more. He also started treating me like I
was part of his harem. All my attempts
to make him behave were futile. As the
weeks passed by his behavior just grew worse.
Finally in January I removed him from the goat enclosure and put him in
the vegetable garden by himself. That
helped a little bit for a short time, but did not totally solve our
problem.
Our plans were to fence off another area and build a
shelter that later could be converted into a chicken coop. As time passed by though it became clear to
us that the only ideal solution was to find Midnight a new home. He was not happy being kept by himself, even
though only a fence separated him from the rest of the herd. Feeding him was becoming a very unpleasant
and even dangerous chore. On top of that
we are in a drought and it is winter, so I have been forced to purchase alfalfa
for the goats. At $16 a square bale,
feeding Midnight was getting very expensive. There was also the issue of his purpose. Midnight had already bred both of our does so
it was very doubtful we would use him as a breeding buck next year, let along
ever again. So the decision was made to
sell him. I put ads in various locations
and put the word out. But after weeks
passed without any response, we decided we would have no option but to take him
to auction. Rick spent a day building a
goat tote for transporting him and last week we hauled him off to the
auction. We both prayed a friend at
church was correct, that a rancher would purchase him and let him out in a field
with a bunch of does to play with. I know
that would be the perfect environment for Midnight to spend out his days. He will be one year old in April so he has
many breeding years left. I got $92 for
Midnight.
