Goat-O-Rama Kids of 2021

[Nanno]

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Even though it's May..." 

We woke up to almost eight inches of snow on May 11th. It quickly slumped to about 3 inches and by the next day there were only a few white traces left on the emerald green carpet of long, thick grass on our pastures.

Phil was a popular character with Snowball and the babies.
   

I love Sapphire’s ears. They go on for miles and they’re just slightly off-kilter in the way they attach to her head.
   
   

Ben Gunn enjoyed a frolic all by himself.
   

But it was more fun to butt heads with Zelda.
   

Skeeter’s kids wouldn’t leave Phil alone. Ruby especially wanted “Up! Up! Up!” even though she’d already spent most of the morning in Phil’s arms.
   

Sadie says, “Baby, it’s COLD outside!”
   

Little tender moment here. Ben Gunn is already huge! Look at this big fella!
   

Sapphire is proud of her newfound ability to jump on the doghouse. She defends it from all comers–especially her brother!
   

Phil is a very popular man.
   

[Nanno]

We took a walk yesterday and Phil got attacked! 
   

[Nanno]

New arrivals sometime after midnight last night. Snowball blessed us with a lovely two-tone chamoise buckling (9 lbs.) and a stunning white and black spotted doeling (7 lbs.). Everyone is doing well! 

I took Dusty out for a moonlight ride last night and I'm so glad I did! Not only was it spectacular out, but it meant my final check on Snowball was later than usual. On a normal night we'd have been asleep when she started labor! Sticking with the "Return to Treasure Island" theme, I believe we'll be calling these two Hawkins and Isabella. 

   

[Charlie Horse]

So do you go in and imprint them on humans right away? I imagine thats a good reason to find them sooner than later.

[Nanno]

We have attended nearly every birth, including this one. I did my final check around 12:15 and I saw amber goo so I hollered at Phil and we grabbed our chairs and the kidding box and sat with her. Snowball started pushing around 12:30 or so. There was a good half hour delay between kids, and then of course the cleanup afterwards so we weren't in bed till around 2:30 a.m. But it's always worth it to be there when they kid. We've missed a couple of births by an hour or two, but we always went right out as soon as we saw them on the Goat-O-Scope and helped finish drying and dunked navels and all that. Our babies never know life without humans.

The little baby girl looks like cookies 'n' cream with chocolate syrup on top. Snowball is being a very attentive mama.

[Nanno]

We we were a little tired on Wednesday after delivering these wee ones in the wee hours, but they were worth it! With a little help from me pulling on their legs, Snowball delivered a big, strong baby boy followed by a small but also strong baby girl. Both kids were up and nursing in short order after Phil and I helped dry them off. We were able to spend a bit more time enjoying them the next day.  
   

We’re calling the little doeling “Isabella”. She looks remarkably like her grandmother Tigerlily, but with more black down her back. She also has little black spots throughout her white coat that remind me of a Dalmatian. I’ve always wanted a Dalmatian but they aren’t very well suited to our situation. Perhaps a Dalmatian-spotted goat would do.
   

She loves to sniff faces. Her brother is happy just to lay in laps.
   
   

Isabella also likes to hog the camera. I had a much harder time getting pictures of her brother Hawkins.
   

But then, who can resist this adorable face? It’s hard NOT to take too many pictures of a goat this cute! Look at those little puppy ears!
   
   

The photo is a little too clear to make it obvious, but when we look at the top of this little head through the somewhat blurry lense of the Goat-O-Scope we see two decoy happy eyes, or maybe some arched eyebrows looking back up at us. It won’t last long, but it’s funny in the meantime.
   

Hawkins would rather chill than mug for the camera. It’s hard to know what color this little guy will be. He’s similar to his daddy, Scout. Scout had a charcoal-colored back end but when he grew older it shedded out to solid black and now he’s a classic cou blanc. Hawkins will for sure be darker in the front than his daddy, but it remains to be seen what color the back half will end up. He also has a crinkled right ear that I might have to fix. Flop ears are ok. Pinched-together ears not so much. I had to fix Snowball’s pinched right ear when she was a kid too.
   

[Nanno]

The last two kids of the season were born on June 4th at dusk. Mocha hung around in the pen all day and picked out a nice cozy little corner where she dug herself a pit to lay in. And then she laid in it. And did nothing else. Phil and I kept waiting for her to start pushing but she was determined to take her pretty time. Eventually it got late enough that we had to put all the goats in the pen with Mocha. Finally something started to happen, but when Phil and I came out to attend the birth, all the older baby goats rushed over and began climbing all over us! This would not be a peaceful, quiet birth! So at the last second, with the water broken and a sac peeking out, Phil and I dragged poor Mocha away from her chosen spot and away from the pen so she could deliver without baby goats jumping on her head. I ended up having to assist the birth a little bit. I'm not sure if things were already delayed or if moving Mocha mid-delivery messed baby up, but the kid was stuck like a cork with nose and feet all trying to come out at once. I pushed the head back a bit and gave the legs a tug and with a  few extra pulls, Baby #1 entered the world!

Mocha was surprisingly dramatic. I expected her to be the strong, stoic type, but instead she stretched out on the ground, threw her head back, and bawled as though the delivery had almost killed her. I had to pull on her collar to convince her to sit up and take a look at the new kid. Once she saw the new baby she was smitten and forgot about feeling sorry for herself.
   

The new kid was a girl about 7.5 lbs and extremely lively! She was standing in less than five minutes and within fifteen minutes she was already starting to hop. I've never seen one pop up so fast! 
   

Baby #2 emerged without drama a few minutes later. Another girl! The girls definitely have the upper hand this year! Out of eight kids born in 2021, six are girls and only two are boys. We were not prepared for this unbalanced ratio when we went with a "Return to Treasure Island" theme. There aren't many female characters in that series. Isabella and Conchita are the only named female roles. Isabella got taken by Snowball's girl and we have Diamond, Ruby, and Sapphire since those particular jewels are mentioned repeatedly throughout the series. We settled on Conchita for Mocha's second kid, but what should we name the first? For that one we had to dig deep. In the middle of the series Long John Silver reminisces about his wife--a "woman of color" mentioned briefly in the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel and expounded on in a short but very powerful conversation in the TV series. In the show, Silver says, "Ashanti she were" and it's unclear if he is referring to her tribe or her name, but that's what we went with. 
   

Skeeter takes her job as herd queen very seriously. She stood by the gate and watched the proceedings with intense interest. She always wants to know what's going on in her herd and how many new babies there are. 
   

When the birth was over we took Mocha back into the pen and set her up cozily in one of the sheds where she could bond with her new family. 
   

Skeeter followed us over and stood with her head through the gate to make sure Mocha was doing everything right. 
   

Diamond takes after her mother in more than just looks! She wanted to supervise too!