1% Chance of NO

Nanner, nanner on me! I don't get to bottle feed the baby goat.

Our friends (owners of goats) took the baby to their house and hand-fed it overnight. Today, when they took the baby to the barn, she went right to her mom and nursed and then went to sleep with her brothers. That is really good news b/c the baby needs to be with its mom - not me. Right? Right?

But these friends are now officially out of town, and I get to go check on the babies to make sure they are all doing well. One mama goat has one baby that is several days old. The other mama had THREE babies (and one of these is the runt that they thought I would have to take care of).

Tonight, while we were at kickball, my friend called and said another female was giving birth as they were leaving and would I please go by and check on it and move it to a new pen.

At about 8:45 pm, we got there and found that the newest mama goat had given birth outside. She had only one baby (didn't find any stillborns, thank goodness). The tricky part was that there was only one way into the barn - a small, square cutout in the side of the barn. I had to carry the baby inside, and it was crying loudly the whole time. Luckily, all that noise made the mama follow us inside. Then Paul grabbed her collar and made sure she followed us into a new pen. We got them some food and water set up, and Paul spread two bags of shavings on the floor. It was all a really fun adventure.

Then we headed to the other pen with the two females and their babies (the ones mentioned above - 2 moms and 4 babies in all). Abbie and Paul got to see the tiny runt who is soooo cute. I held her mom's collar while she nursed. She needs all the help she can get to make sure she gets her fair share. We plan to go back everyday just to be sure the runt is doing okay. And there is another mom that will give birth soon (she's about as wide as she is tall - she's probably got 2-3 babies in there).

Hopefully, I'll remember to take a camera tomorrow.