A Date With Some Goats

    Susie and I had waited a week for it to be Tuesday after 5:00.  Susie had covered me the last hour of work so I could run home to feed the ranch horses early.  When I got back to the office her daughter, Ella, had been dropped off.  We had a dinner date with about fifty or so hungry and totally cute baby goats.  One of our goat and cow dairy families, that are clients at our veterinary hospital, said that it would be okay if we came by after work to help them feed their baby goats.
    When we arrived we were met first by the dog and after a few minutes of waiting and worrying if they forgot that we were coming, the farmer.  Out of the back of the pickup he unloaded four, five gallon buckets filled with cow's milk for the baby goats.  We followed him into the dark barn.  When he turened the lights on the barn erupted in a chorus of tiny  me~me~me~meeee-s (aka baby goat sounds).  The babies were divided into groups of four and kept in play pen sized enclosures, bedded with straw.  There were a few does (girl goats) with their newborn kids(baby goats) and a few does waiting to have theirs. 
    The farmer and his assistant pulled out totes of clean bottles and nipples.  Each bottle got a scoop of supplements before being filled with the fresh cow's milk.  The farmer attached the nipple, shook the bottle until it was well mixed and placed it in a hot water bath to keep warm.  He pointed out the pens of the kids that we would be feeding.  He was quite the host and set us up spots to sit while feeding.  He set a clean towel on a office chair that had turned into a pimped out milking stool for Ella.  Susie got a step ladder with a towel and I got a bucket that was filled to the rim with grain.  Every time I got up, one of the hens would hop on it and do the funky chicken, flicking grain, my seat,  all over the floor.
   Our job was to feed the kids most recently separated from their moms.  Unlike the older goat kids that could feed off of bottles hanging from a holder, our little guys needed a little extra help guiding the nipple into their little mouths.  After receiving our instructions we leaned over the rail of the pens to scoop up our first babies.  They me~me~me'ed and darted around the pen in a hungry hysteria.  Catching them proved harder then we expected.  Then Susie stepped in.  She leaned over and grabbed one of the little suckers faster then a lightening bolt.  She passed one to Ella, then before I could blink she handed one to me and had her own in her arms.   The whole evening she wrangled up our little dinner dates earning her the title of the fastest baby goat wrangler in the west...or at least between the three of us.  
      We sat down with the little bundles on our laps and gave them their bottles. There little lips would crinkle up around the nipple and their tails wiggled excitedly as the drank.  As their bellies grew full and their eyes grew dreamy they would snuggle deep and cozy into our laps. When they were finished we put them back in their straw beds for a little rest.  It was stretchy pants and couch time for these little creatures.   
     We all chatted happily over the little me~me~me'ing in the barn.  The cats waited patiently for their share of the left over milk. A hen roosted above us in the rafters, as another drank the milk that dripped off the bottle table.  The dog dozed in the doorway.  The light in the barn glowed golden and warm. With a little white baby goat on my lap I watched as it all happened into memories.
    Ella and I tucked our last kids back into their pen. We passed by a pen with a mama goat in it and noticed a teeny tiny white bundle hidden in the straw. We opened the pen and picked up a few hour old kid that was very weak.

Our baby goat that was in serious need of some love!

    I gave him a good little rub to warm him up and get his circulation going.  He blinked his little eyes at us and gave us the teeniest me~me~.  Of course that melted our hearts.  We held him up to his mom to nurse but he was just to weak to latch on despite opening his mouth to try.  We carried him to the farmer and Susie suggested that we should give him some colostrum (it is the thick, yellow first milk produced by the momma after she gives birth.  It contains maternal antibodies that help protect the newborn from disease pathogens).  The farmer defrosted some frozen colostrum and filled up a bottle.  We held our breath as we held the bottle to his lips and nothing happened.  I wiggled my finger in his mouth to open it and guided the nipple in.  Then like a ferocious lion who hadn't eaten in months he attacked that bottle, sucking it down quicker then we had filled it.   

The baby getting a bottle of colostrum.

Someone call the police.  This little goat is too cute to be legal.

Susie the master goat wrangler feeding our little goat lion, as I hold him.
 

His eyes grew dreamy as the bottle emptied. 

Drunk on milk..and wearing it.   

   We tucked him back in with his mom.  She got so excited to see her little baby with a little fight in him now.  She licked him all over as he teetered on his newly discovered legs.  Fully content and soaked in milk, it was time for us to go home but not without making plans to come back the following week to feed the calves. 

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Copyright (c) 2014 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com March 2, 2014