If you’re friends with me on Facebook you can probably guess what this blog entry will be about…

Goat babies! Mio had two precious, little boys on Monday. And that’s sort of been all I’ve been able to think about this week. My head is full of bouncing baby goats.

It was a rainy morning, as I walked to the playground on Monday. So I wasn’t surprised that the goats didn’t want to go outside. Quite normal behaviour for them. But Mio was acting a little unusual. She kept going to the corner and pawing the hay and sitting down. And snorting at the others when they came too close. A little later Alice arrived and came with hay. She looked at Mio and said that something might be happening soon. I put the other goats into the other compartment to give her some space. And when the rain stopped I let them out in the pen.

A couple of times I _almost_ thought something was happening. Mio kinda took a position and stood still. Smacking her lips. I’d never seen a live goat birth before so I wasn’t sure what to expect really. But nothing happened. And she’s tricked me before. I thought, ah probably won’t happen right now. So I went out in the pen and spent some time with the others. Nina was inside watching Mio. And a little later she came out and told me that she thought something was happening. Mio was pushing, it seemed. So I went back inside. Watching her with Nina and two girls from the playground. And then it happened.

I didn’t actually realise it the first time. With the blindness and the fairly darkness inside and Mio facing me. I don’t know what I was expecting, a loud plop and a crying baby? But then I heard Nina whisper to the girls “look, she’s cleaning it” and upon a closer look, there it was. A little baby. For the second one Mio had turned around so I saw that full on. It was a little scary, just because I was afraid something would go wrong. I kinda held my breath until it was finally out. Push push push. Phew. The first time I’ve been there for a goat birth. Pretty special moment.

Of course Mio went straight to work cleaning and fussing over them. She’s got plenty of experience with this. A great mama goat.

We were a little concerned that they were having trouble eating enough. Mio has four teat and we thought that there were only milk in the two big ones. So we were trying to get them to hang on to those and we even milked Mio a little and bottlefed the kids. When I tried helping them get the right teat I noticed the small ones were wet too. Felt like there was something coming from them. So I did think the boys were getting some from them. But I was told there was only milk in the big ones. Well, eventually Bodil got a hold of Kurt who told her that it was normal for boers to have milk in all four teat. And that the kids would figure it out on their own. So we backed off and let Mio handle it on her own and that went much better. I think we probably stressed her and the babies out with all our well-meant attempts to help. She was doing fine all on her own. And the babies are drinking and seem to be doing well. The first born is smaller than the other and did seem a little worrying small at first. But he’s put on some weight now too.

Apparently I’m supposed to name them. The kids at the playground have made a list of names for me to choose from. The girl who calls me GOATMAN was reading it to me. I’m not sure how exactly that’ll go down. I feel insecure about naming them when I don’t have a clear idea in my head like I did with Herman. It’s a big responsibility! Maybe I’ll ask them to vote or pick 3 possibilities at least or something. We’ll see.

Alice said it was a boy and a girl, but I quicly realised it was two boys. For now I’ve been calling them miniMio and miniHerman on Facebook. Because one looks like a little white Mio. And the other looks a bit like Herman, especially the markings on his body and the colour of his spots. It’s so cute. Just like mom and dad.

And they really are sweet. MiniHerman is quite the troublemaker already, though. Bouncing around and trying to rile up his brother. Nibbling on my coat. Oh, he’s going places.

Everyone loves them of course. It’s always fun when we have goat babies. People coming to see them and fawn over them. Gleeful kids. I had to call Bodil too so she could come see them. Sif is crazy about goat kids. I could hear her whimpering from the back of the room, because Bodil didn’t want to take her too close. Mio is on guard of course. But Sif wanted to come closer so bad. I went out to say hi to her and she was jumping up and down me and licking my hands like crazy. I don’t think she’s ever done that before. She can smell the kids on you, Bodil says. It’s not a hunter thing. It’s a maternal instinct. She wants to go in and lick them all over. Like a mama goat. So sweet.

And as the week has gone on they have grown, slightly, and gotten livelier and started bouncing around. They’ve been at the hatch a few times. Looking out into the pen. MiniMio aaalmost took a step out. Until Mio nudged him back in. But they’ll probably be out playing soon. The other goats aren’t paying too much attention to them. Mia has sniffed at them a few times. But generally Mio chases them away when they come too close. Only Herman is allowed near them really. And I think that’s mostly because Mio knows she can’t boss him around. He’s sniffed at them too and seems a little more curious than the others. I’m sure he knows he’s the proud daddy.

I’ve had them both sitting in my lap a few times. Dozing off. Especially one time when miniHerman got up and walked off and miniMio was left curled up in my lap. So tiny and sweet with her little hooves sticking out. Snoring. Gosh. It melted my heart.

Hopefully everything will continue to go well next week. I can’t wait to spend more time with them.

Now let’s get to a million pictures.

Don’t worry Mia, I haven’t forgotten you!

Or you, Palle!

And goatlogs. With all the fun fun fun goat kidness. Plus graphic birth scene in the first one, be warned.

And that’s all for this week, more to come next week likely.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2014 at 22:51 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.