Another Near Tragedy

Yesterday I was out taking pictures for a new project. My father-in-law will be here next week, helping Mary and I build animal shelters. While out there, I thought I'd check in on the mom and babies. Good thing I did. One was lying in the straw, in a position I recognized from another time, when we found a dead goat in a stall. He was still breathing, but was obviously not happy.

One call to Dr. Maureen later, and we learned we had a goat with mastitis. Her kids now need to be bottlefed. We were up every couple of hours, feeding babies and worrying. The sicker kid had to be tubed, fed through a tube into its stomach, for the first feeding. The next two were accomplished with a syringe. He was looking so perky by the third that I told him, "Drink out of the bottle, or don't drink." He drank.

This morning we had two happy kids and a very worried mama goat. The kids spent the day with Mama, and are back in the house for the night. Tomorrow they will join us on our Great Adventure to deliver April to her new home and pick up Mary's horse! You have no idea how happy I am that she will finally have a horse. The weeping, wailing and whining around here have been almost too much to bear. But soon, peace will return. Although then there'll be a horse to take care of.....

Some cute pictures of kids and kids feeding kids. Enjoy!