All Aboard The Rollercoaster
Well, it’s been quite a week in goat land. In addition to Mio’s two boys, Mia also had babies on Monday. Two kids, but one of them did not survive. Always rough. Good thing there are 3 super sweet babies to love and take care of. I have barely had the time to think about anything else. All my time has been spent either with the goats or at home trying to edit all the footage I’m filming. So much.
But here’s the Facebook post about Mia’s birth day, because I’m too tired to type it all out again.
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Tough day. Big news from the playground. Turns out Mio wasn’t the only one pregnant. As I was pretty sure, Mia was expecting too. And she gave birth today while I was alone with the goats. Dennis had gone over to the youth club, the staff is kinda going back and forth between the playground and the club all the time. So I was alone with them.
She had two babies, but one of them didn’t make it. I didn’t see any life signs from it. I tried my best to get some life in it, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I can’t help wondering if I could have done something if I had been better educated or if there had been a vet there or… but it’s too late now anyway. I tried calling Dennis a couple of times when I could see Mia was going into labour, but he didn’t pick up (turned out he was in a meeting). When I didn’t know what to do I started walking over to the youth club
Then Dennis picked up the phone while I was heading there. So he and Mars came over. They couldn’t do anything either. It’s so sad. What really kills me is… it was a little Palle. A little, lifeless black goat. Can you imagine if Palle had a black baby sister? Ugh.
I was worried about the other kid too, because it was just standing still for a long time. But Mia was fussing over it well and eventually it started drinking from her, which is the important thing. And it got more livelier, moving and bleating and drinking more. So hopefully it will be okay. It looked like it was completely white, I couldn’t see any markings. But it hard to tell yet.
Mio’s babies are doing really well.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Palle is hoarse tomorrow. I had to let him out in the pen on his own. He was not happy about that. Eventually it started raining. I couldn’t bear hearing him wailing out there alone in the rain, so I let him back in. Staying in the little entrance way, with Mio and Mia in their respective compartments. I think he’s going to bunk with the bunnies for a couple of days at least.
So yeah. I’m drained. I haven’t really had a chance to properly decompress since Mio’s babies came. I have kind of limited capacity, I quickly get physically and mentally exhausted when I have to be out in the real world. I could really use a good 14 hours sleep dreamathon.
So many conflicting emotions right now. Relief that Mia seemed to get through it okay. It was a little scary. She howled like I don’t think I have ever heard her before. I don’t remember Mio screaming like that when I saw her give birth either. For a moment I kinda thought she was dying. And I was there all alone. So I’m glad she got through that. I’m glad the new sweet little baby seemed to pick up and do okay. I am heartbroken over the dead one, I can stil feel the lifeless limbs in my fingertips… but it’s also that kind of strange sadness when it’s not someone you know and have history with. It’s more the tragedy and unfairness and shock. I don’t know how to explain. It’s not the pain of losing a friend, it’s just horror. But I’m okay. Just trying to block out that stuff and focus on doing the best for the new babies that are still with us
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There you go. All 3 kids are doing well now. All 3 are boys. Mia’s boy was very small and didn’t seem very strong at first. But he’s doing much better now. They’ve all been outside, they’re all jumping around. It’s a big circus. Can you imagine if Peanut was here too? Oh boy.
And that’s all for now. But at least there’s lots of photos.
And a bunch of goatlogs.
Phew. That’s all for this week, folks. See you in the next one.
February 8th, 2016 at 2:29
Oh, my! Fuzzy is such a sweet baby. Mia is such a good mama with all her cleaning and licking and getting him to the milk.
Our landlords raise cattle for a living and every once in awhile one of the calves isn’t born alive. They have raised cows for many, many years and they know sometimes there is just nothing humanly possible to be done in that case.
Their cows have pastures to graze in as they are not all housed in a big confinement area. They are sad when a calf doesn’t make it, but they have to go on to the next cow and calf to see that they are ok.
I have watched several calves being born and it is nerve wracking to wait until they stand up and finally head for the milk. Some babies go to the wrong end of the cow or the mama keeps moving away when it gets close. I have to remember that those cows have been having calves for a long time even without me being there!
It’s really a miracle to witness baby animals being born and we are lucky to have that experience even though there are some sad times. And your “cutest goat in Denmark” is an indication of this as you have so many followers who only get to know the joys of having goat friends through your blog and videos. Thank you for letting a whole bunch of people in on the importance of companion animals.
February 15th, 2016 at 0:06
Births are always scary. And when you sit at the birth and then sit with the babies so much, it’s hard when you lose one. But, luckily the living ones are keeping me happy and busy. So wonderful. And it’s a real joy to get to share it all with so many people.