An Addition to the Farm Family

The above picture is a little strange because there was snow coming down when I took it, and I guess some got on the lens. We have a new arrival! Hannah has taken primary responsibility for our newest addition who has four legs and two big floppy ears.

Here's how it happened. Our neighbor's Nubian goat had two kids, and she was rejecting one. He didn't want to see it die, so he called us to see if we wanted to try to save it. When we got it, it seemed near death--it was wet and chilled, couldn't stand at all, and hadn't eaten. We took it home and blew it with a blow dryer to warm it up. Then we wrapped it up and bottle-fed it some milk that we wrestled out of the mother. She isn't trained as a dairy goat, so she didn't take very kindly to being milked. After about two hours, the baby stood up when we helped him, and he could balance on all four feet. Then next morning, he was standing up all by himself. He spent the first two days and nights in the downstairs bathroom on a quilt and some towels. The youngest children, Katie, Molly, and Matthew, were delighted, but Katie and Molly were pretty contentious over who got to hold him and when. Now he lives in the barn under a warming light.We have had him for five days. The plan was NOT to have to bottle feed him, although it is soooo cute! We thought he would be easily adopted to another of our goats who looked like she was about to kid. She still hasn't. I've gone back once to get more milk from the mother goat, whose second baby died on Friday. Hopefully we'll have some milk of our own soon, unless Gypsy just refuses to give birth and finally pops!