Goats in the Bathroom

Pepper and Jenny playing.

Pepper wants her bottle.

Another goat battle.

As I am trying to do some work on the computer, I hear the clatter of little hooves in my downstairs bathroom. I know everyone in thinks I am crazy to have goats in the house. Thank goodness we have not finished the renovations and all the floor will be replaced. The goat babies have woken up from their nap and are rough-housing around the area of the bathroom that they are blocked off in. This is my que to get Pepper's bottle ready. She sure lets me know when she is hungry. Jenny goes out to her Mom for feeding but sometimes she will take a bottle as well. They are growing up so fast that they have almost out grown their coats. We left them inside as, yes, we are having another snow storm, a big one. Pepper's mom wants nothing to do with her so if we put her outside she would have no one to protect her. They are really good company for each other and play and play. Pepper is full of beans and when let loose with the big goats will dance on everyones backs. I am surprised the big males put up with this but they are all pretty gentle with the little brat. Baby goat kids are really silly and boink all over the place with the joy of life. It helps me to think that spring should be here any time now.

Babies Keep Coming

New little gray doeling.

She sure is hungry.

Ruby checking her out.

My husband had a shock this morning. We were expecting twins from Sugar, our cream colored angora goat. She is huge and looks to pop any day. She is the mother of Pansy and Petunia born last winter at around this time. Surprise, surprise, her daughter Pansy gave birth to a little gray doeling and she is only a year old. Never had that happen before. Our goats have always been 2 years old before they got bred. Anyway, Pansy wants nothing to do with this loud, robust little creature and she runs to her Mom Sugar crying. Ruby took pity on the new baby and let her nurse from her. That was a first for another Mom to foster some other goat's baby. She had lots of milk so maybe it is a way to make her feel less full. The new baby also took a bottle of Ruby's milk so maybe she is bonding with her. I put sweatshirt sleeves on them as little coats so they can keep warm. My husband pointed out that they are color coordinated to the goats that they are on. Certainly didn't do that on purpose, when I was woken up from a dead sleep by a screaming, wet goat kid and a panic stricken husband. Just trying to get them dry and warm. Now we are watching Petunia, Pansy's twin sister, to see if she will have something. They are so woolie, it is very hard to tell if they are bred and forget about trying to catch them in the snow. I think we would both have heart attacks trying to do that.

Liam Comes Home

Big Bright Eyes.

Justine doing the feeding.

Listening to every word.

He follows me around the room.

My daughter and son-in-law are very happy that little Liam was able to come home yesterday from the hospital. So are we. It is very hard to leave your first child in the hands of others and go home. It is such a worry to think that there might be something wrong health-wise but he came through all his tests with flying colors. He is eating well and doing great. Sure is cute, even cuter that angora babies, says his adoring grandmother. I think we'll keep him :-)

Snow Babies Part 2

GC Aphrodite's litter of 2 REW and 1 ?

Goats staying out of the Nursery. "The Brat" in the middle.

Little cutie angora doeling.

Blue boys from Daze.

Just a few more snow babies to finish off the blog. Aphrodite's colored baby was a blue all along and I looked at it today and it might now be a tort. Very strange color changes on this bunny. I am not at all sure what color it will turn out to be. Last time Aphrodite gave me 9 REW babies when bred to a black buck. This time, a different black buck and it looks like I don't know what color. The blue boys are cute, here's hoping the nails are good. Daze also had 2 REW with the big one a boy and the little one a girl so far. Let's wait and see what the woolies bring next.

Snow Babies

REW English Angoras from Daze.

GC Sweet Pea's tort litter.

Tulip's litter of 2 torts and a REW.

Baby angora goat born this morning.

Baby Human sleeping.

I promised baby photos but I never expected to have so many. There are so many, I may have to add another post or maybe they will fit them in at the end of the text. The snow storm (yes, another one!) brought along another baby this morning, Ruby's little doeling. She is staying pretty warm in the little sweat shirt sleeve but Mom is still tired from the delivery. We milked her and gave it to her baby with a syringe. She perked up after that and has been on her feet complaining. Ruby is a really good Mom if you remember her buckling "The Brat" from last winter. He would still be nursing if given half the chance but since he is now bigger then his Mom, that probably wouldn't be possible.

All of the angora babies are doing well now after the initial non-feeding Moms

issue. Unfortunately most of them seem to be bucks. Things can change but that is the look of things right now. They sure are cute though. Must be the time of the year for boy babies, humans included. The little angora doeling may change things around now, but mostly we are waiting for Jersey Woolie babies this week and two black (I hope) angora litters at the end of the week. We will see. Babies sure do break up the winter cabin fever we have all been feeling. They are so much fun.

Just 2 More

Liam all dressed up.

Looks just like Dad.

Just have to post a few more without all the tubes and wires. He is darling and boy! does he have a loud voice. He is out of the incubator but still in the NIC-U as of yesterday afternoon. He is off all the IV's and oxygen and looks great. I promise to get back to the bunny business soon, as I have bunches of baby bunny photos to post but the human baby takes precedence at the moment. Thanks for all the well wishes. I think the McGraw girls might be lining up to be baby sitters:-) Too bad they are so far away.

Human Baby News

Well, having a migraine all week must have been in sympathy for my daughters labor pains because it finally went away yesterday and beautiful Liam Ronald Aten was born at 10:32 Pm last night. He weighs a whopping 8.5 pounds and is a big baby for my tiny daughter to give birth too. He took 28 hours of labor to come into the world and was a little worse for wear after the experience so he is in the incubator for a while. Isn't he cute? We are all thrilled and happy to welcome him into the world. I can't wait to get my hands on him (spoken like a true grandmother) and my son (his Uncle) says he's already big enough to go on a skateboard. I can imagine the two of them in trouble already! Hope to post more photos soon.

Wade Memorial Show

GC CR Conspiracy Theory

GC Tulamores Caprice

GC CR Conspiracy Theory

The Wade Memorial Show was great fun and a little bit hectic. That is always the way for the first show of the season. You have to get into the rhythm of showing and it doesn't usually start so early for us out on the East Coast. The Pennsylvania Convention, a 2 day, double open, double specialty extravaganza usually kicks off the new year for us. This year the powers that be decided that due to the passing of Sherry Wade, they would have a memorial show for a scholarship fund with everyone donating their time, judging and registration fees and donating baskets for a HUGE raffle table. Everyone was happy to come even though there was a snow storm on the day before and it was 9* when we started out to the showroom at 6am. "This is why we don't show in January!" was every one's remarks as we slipped and slid across the parking lot pulling bunny carts through the snow and trying to avoid the snow plows zipping past us.
It was worth it because CR Conspiracy Theory, REW Jersey Woolie buck (aka: The Raffle Bunny) won BEST OF BREED over 25 woolies. I was so excited to see him do so well. I just love him and had the confidence that he would develop into something special. Having his Mom, GC CR Blue Diamonds(4legs) and and his sister GC CR Blue Skies (9 legs, RIS and many BOBs), I kind of thought he would do good. He now is a Grand Champion, keeping it all in the family.

In English Angoras, Caprice continued her winning streak with BOB. One of the boys from the "Starving Artist" series of Pandemonium's 5 bucks, which I kept all but one, snagged the BOS award. Van Gogh, the black buck, was my least likely to succeed having a ear carriage problem as a baby, hence his name. He has come around, you just have to have the patience and and let them grow.

Donna's beautiful Annouk won BOV white and her brother Shepherd Aegis won BOSV on his first show out. There were 18 English Angoras entered for some pretty large classes. I hope this continues for the rest of the show year. Hope to get photos of the boys for my website. No, I didn't get one photo at the Wade Show, it was too hectic but lots of fun and I think Mike and Sherry were looking down on us the whole day long. You could feel them smiling. It is just the way they would have wanted to be remembered.