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Monday, 30 August 2004
Addicted to............GOATS
Mood:
 happy
My addiction began about one year ago. It started simple enough, just one little nanny goat bought for no reason other than I wanted a goat. Her name is Ester. She is part nubian, part something else. It really didnt matter cause she is just the sweetest girl in the world. She quickly became bestfriends with our dog Daizy. I had no clue about goats, other than everyone said they will eat weeds. I didnt know they are social animals, and need friends. After a few months, I decided she needed a goat friend, so we found Billy. He was a young part Boer goat, cute, sweet and a big pet. They became instant buddies. Both were about the same age and size, and we allowed to roam free in the yard for awhile. That ended after several days of Billy standing at the back door, looking in the windows, and knocking. Also their attempts to "help" me bring in the groceries from the car and come on in to the house played a big part in the decision to fence them in. So, we built a fairly large area for them, with a nice house and put them in it. Billy was not happy at all. He enjoyed being on the porch, looking in, and getting on the school bus, and sitting at our feet. I think he thought he was a dog. He found a place where he could get out and adjustments had to be made to keep him in the fence. My husband and I began to spend alot of time standing at the fence, talking to our babies. He decided he wanted more goats, so here came Gizelle who was pregnant, Big Bertha, who was mean as a snake, Molly, Milly, Dolly, Penny, Ruth, and Lester. All was well on the goat acre!
We discovered that Ester was pregnant. Little Billy had grown up some it seemed! In the meantime, Gizelle had Baby, the cutest little nanny and I was in AWE because I got to watch the birth. I could hardly wait for my girl Ester to give birth. I planned on being there at her side for the entire event! Ester had other plans. On Fathers day weekend, my husband and I decided to go out to eat and we were only gone for a couple of hours, when we got home, Ester had given birth to little EllieMae. I really should have named her Jersey because she is colored like a Jersey Cow. She is beautiful. I was a proud grandparent!!
Big Bertha was so mean to Ester and Penny (another sweet pet) that we decided to sell her. She was a bully! Lester died and Molly became sick shortly after we got her. I did alot of research to try to discover what she had, and think I found it, and learned alot! I also learned a valuable lesson in looking at goats, and what might be a problem. I had no idea goats could get so many things. I still have tons to learn, but I intend to learn as much as possible to protect these guys.
We had all these nannies, and Billy was constantly chasing them around, trying his best to give them some lovin, but they wouldnt have none of it. Dolly did get pregnant, but had a miscarriage. :( I suggested to my husband that we get another Billy goat, to breed, since Billy wasnt getting the job done. Thats when we got Moose. My God he is an awesome animal. Huge and beautiful, he knew what to do with the ladies! He is alpine, and just amazing to watch. We also got Sandy and mama goat. Both are alpine as well.
My husband has a few acres across from our daughters home, so we fenced it in, and decided to put the goats there, since it was much larger, and we could have more. Of course Ester and Billy stayed here. Penny is going to come home too, since she is so sad being away from us. We kept the young goats, Milly, Baby and Ellie here too, to keep Moose from breeding them so young. I know Billy is a danger, but we are going to seperate him from the babies too.
I went Friday to get 3 more little young billies. We will sell them, and Sunday, we went to get 3 nannies, but ended up with 5 nannies and one baby billy. They are beautiful. Not named yet, because I like to watch them, get to know them, and name them based on their personalities. Goats have such distinctive personalities, its just amazing.
Well, thats where we are at today. I will add more about each goat, and as we get more.
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