Sweet Goats

Just for fun on a rainy Sunday . . . Yesterday, Kristel and I nearly panicked. I heard Maverick screaming (I know his voice). He is our little month-old papered (expensive) buckling, destined to become the Nubian herd sire. I bottle feed him five times a day (soon to go to four times . . . then three times . . . and by three months old he should be weaned). We have so much milk in the freezer, and Velvet, the Toggenburg gives over a gallon a day, plus she feeds her own triplets. She’s a milking “machine.”

Anyway, with all the rain and storms, Saturday was calm, warm, and even sunny at times. We put the big herd out in another pasture, and I put Prissy (the beautiful Nubian doe, who gives wonderful-tasting milk), her Mini-Nubian doeling, Trudy, and Maverick out in the “rock” pasture. So much fun for the goats! Oh, the “minions” (AKA Dwarf Nigerians) were there too, all eight of them (two mamas and six babies. Oy!)

So, back to Maverick screaming. It was a terrible scream. I thank the Lord that both Kristel and I happened to be outside. We went running. Sure enough, poor little Maverick had made a wrong landing on one of the rocks and landed, twisted and upside down, and spread out, with one foreleg trapped under a huge rock, in a crevasse! (A crack between the rocks, but to him it must have seemed like a crevasse.) He was wedged so tightly in there that we feared for his life. He could move nothing except for his head, and boy did he scream. It took awhile to extricate him from that place. It was hard to pull him out without hurting him. If we had not come to his rescue, he would have lain there and probably died. Geesh! The rocks and the goats have been there ever since Kristel bought the ranch and bought goats. No goats have ever slipped (in five years!). Leave it to the papered, fancy goat to get himself into such a jam, literally.

After his terrible experience, Maverick cuddled on my lap for a long, long time. He was pretty traumatized. He was happy to sit with “bottle mama” until I got tired of sitting on the rocks. They are very uncomfortable.

Like Andi’s mother would say, “All’s well that ends well.” Maverick is none the worse for wear and went about with his “foster” mom, Prissy, and his foster sibling, Trudy (half Nubian, have dwarf Nigerian = mini Nubian). But Maverick will not be going back into that rock pasture for a long, long time!

Make sure you check the blog tomorrow (Monday, March 13). A new contest is launching. Actually, two contests this week. I can’t wait to share!