Baby Goats and a Full Moon

The goats getting into the feed the other day really messed me up. As I said yesterday, Phoebe had the worst case of scours, so I didn't think twice about it when she was standing in a corner of a stall each time I checked them.

Today was sunny and 75 and we'd made plans on Monday to go strawberry picking with my parent and my aunt. It was a perfect day. We got home about 5:00 and I said "hi" to the goats and went to check the garden. I noticed Phoebe didn't come to visit, but hey, she's not been feeling well.

I came back to the barn to get some garden supplies and heard a little "baaa". Whoa, what? I peeked over the wall and saw this:

Terrible, blurry picture, but I was terribly excited. I went in to check on them, a bit surprised she'd only had one. Checked the baby- a boy- drat. Bounced Phoebe's belly. She was done. Oh well, he's so pretty!

Asher was wonderful with them. Checking on mama and baby and keeping the other does away. I almost felt bad locking him out with the other goats so mama and baby could have some quiet time. I was reveling in goat grandmotherhood when my dad asked, "Where's Asher?"  Heck, I don't know where the dog is, I have a baby goat here!

Then my dad called Asher and saw him lift his head way down in the woods. He called again and Asher stood. That's when my dad said, "Umm, Kristin, who's that goat down there with Asher? It's not Bogo". He asked that a few times until I told him to stop it, he was scaring me. I ran down to investigate.

There in the woods was a tiny little kid. Asher had gone down there and curled up with it to keep it warm. I picked it up, ran it up to mama, and stuck it on a teat. Then I tried to see if it was a boy or girl but it had meconium stuck to it's backside so I couldn't tell! Finally after a good suck, mama cleaned the baby off and it's a GIRL!!!

I couldn't be happier. I think what happened was Phoebe decided to take a walk around the woods to browse and dropped the little girl. Not knowing what had happened and realizing that something was going on, she must have booked it back to the barn where she had the boy. The girl was dry when I found her. The boy was still damp. My wonderful, sweet, adorable, smart dog, Asher, had been taking care of the little girl in the woods and alerted us to her existence. He's my hero.

I think the full moon might work it's magic tonight- a Luna moth even landed on the kitchen window during dinner. Onyx looks like she's about to bust and her ligaments are soft. Scilla's are softening. When I checked the calendar on my iPhone this evening, I noticed it said 4/25- Phoebe Due. If Scilla hadn't tricked me so long, I might have actually checked the calendar and believed that!