Guess what?! Magnethe had babies! Three beautiful, healthy little kids. I can hardly believe it. It hadn’t registered in my brain that so much time had passed. In my head it was like.. well it was December yesterday right? But no, it’s almost April. I was completely unprepared. Until the phone rang on Monday and it was Bodil. She told me the good news. And told me how she’d pestered the playground employees to call me. Apparently my number had gotten lost, but she kept insisting that I had to be informed. I’m not sure if she ended up looking me up in the phonebook or what. But anyway, Magnethe had kids. Friday, 10 days ago. I’m a little sad that I missed their baby steps the first week and a half. But I’m really glad Bodil called, because I’m dealing with some stuff at home and I was not sure I was even going to the playground this week. So I could have missed 2\u00bd weeks if I hadn’t gotten the call. And luckily they are still tiny and adorable. I went and saw them yesterday and they are as sweet and cute as you’d expect goat kids to be. No wonder Magnethe was grumpy and so huge she had to go on a diet. She was carrying three big boys in her belly. I am relieved that she seems to be doing very well, and so are the kids. No troubles. Although Bodil told me one of them had been a little weaker at first. But they’re all doing really well now. The thing about Magnethe is that she has three teats. Which is apparently a rare super mutation in a goat. Or so I’m told. But there’s only milk in two of them. So when they all three go to feed from her, only two will be getting milk. But it doesn’t seem to be a problem. And they have already started nibbling on things. Like coats and fingers. And straws of hay. I’m not sure they can actually eat the hay, but they sure don’t mind trying. It’s cute seeing them struggle, even a single strand of hay looks enormous in their little mouths.<\/p>\n
All three of them are boys. One has a white body and a brown head. One has a white body and a black head. And one is all dark (dark brown or black?) with white spots. Beautiful colouring. He has the cutest white tip on his tail and he is just the prettiest little boy ever. And they all have a white mark on their foreheads.<\/p>\n
I had a very good time with them naturally. Goat kids never fail to make me smile. Just sitting down with one of them falling asleep in my lap is bliss. Having them jump around on me and investigating everything. Sweet and cuddly. Every now and then when Magnethe wandered far enough away from me, Snow White would come over to say hello. You can tell what a sweet and goodnatured goat she is by the fact that she didn’t even mind when one of the kids started jumping up on her. I don’t think Magnethe will allow Snow White’s kids to do that. Snow White should be having kids soon too, so we’ll see. But normally goats will push away other goats’ kids, at least that’s my experience. Snow White did that once but otherwise she was nice and friendly to them and didn’t seem to mind having them around.<\/p>\n
Bodil came by too. Normally I’d go up to the fence and say hello to her and Sif. But I was sitting with a goat kid sleeping in my lap, so she understood that I had to stay put! But she was glad to see me there with them of course. “If we want them to be really tame we have to have you sitting with them all the time”. Hehe. I will try.<\/p>\n
Later on some human kids came into the pen and fawned over the babies. There was lots of running around and wheeeing. They were quite upset that Magnethe was butting Snow White around, so they tried to get Magnethe to go inside. When that failed they tried to get Snow White to go inside. You’d be suprised how hard it is to get goats to go anywhere. At least anywhere you want them to go. But it was all good fun. And the goat kid were much adored and petted.<\/p>\n