So, inevitablly when I go out of town (on the rare occassions I actually leave home for more than 15 minutes) something has to happen. An animal gets out, an animal gets hurt or gets sick. A family memeber gets sick. something breaks or doesnt work the way it’s supposed to and no one knows how to fix it… this is the story of my life when I leave town. This time we were presented with a cute little surprise in the Goat Pen on May 1st.
You see, although we knew our mini (who we have apropriately named Minnie) was pregnant. Her previous owner (and breeder) noted that the conseption date was around january, which would then make her due sometime in June alongside our standard Nubian Maxine, who we are anxiously watching for the second time this year….
I noticed a week or two ago that suddenly her udder was FULL and looked about to burst. She herself wasnt too incredibly fat, but boy did she have a lot of milk! We discussed the possibility of mini goats delivering sooner, but upon short research we found that their gestation was also about 150 days, not really much different. So I relaxed a little and completely forgot about the signs of early labor I had been noticing in her. I became destracted with packing for my trip to the Kentucky Derby and forgot all about the mini goat who looked as though she were about to pop!
No sooner did I leave for my trip did I get a frantic phone call from my dear sweet husband who agreed to run the farm in my absence. “UMMMM….. there’s a baby goat in the pen….” were the panicked words I heard through my phone while driving 15 hours from Tampa Florida to Louisville Kentucky. I spent a good part of that drive on the phone arranging for friends and family to come by the house and check on the mama and baby due to the 90+ temperatures and the limited information I actually had about them both. I wasnt sure if mama was still in labor, if baby was healthy, heck! I didnt even know if it was a boy or girl!
I was SO excited to get home and love on the baby and congratulate Minnie for a job well done! Typically a young goat’s first baby is a smoothe process but sometimes they can run into trouble, so I was so pleased and proud of her for delivering all on her own without any complications!
SO here’s the deal… we can’t decide on a name. We thought since he surprised us all while I was headed out to the Kentucky Derby #140, that maybe we would think of a name for him that is related, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. Let us know what you think, we want your help!!!
You can see more pictures of him HERE
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