The background to the goats

By the end of 2011, we had met the neighbor that lived two properties away.  He had a big barn with horses that he would buy and sell, and he had other animals that would come and go for various purposes (mostly food.)  He was renting out some of the barn to some Muslim guys that were selling goats for religious/cultural events for food and several of the goats and cows would get away and escape.  The guys would never go look for them or try to catch them.  There were 2 calves and 3 goats in total that I knew of that had escaped and no one knows what happen to them.

The first goat to escape was Billy.  He was a little guy that showed up in my mud room one night - I thought someone was trying to break in.  He was so terrified I couldn't get close to him and for a month he was on my property or the one further away from the barn surviving on his own.  Finally the guys went and caught him because he was often near the main road and I think the county said something to them.

In mid-December, my sons and I saw a new goat on our property.  We knew he escaped from Larry's barn.  I eat meat, I enjoy eating meat, but I can not know an animal before it is going to be eaten.  My theory is "if it escapes, it deserves to live" so I was hopeful that they wouldn't catch her and I bought some treats and food to put out for her in the hopes that she wouldn't go back to the barn and get caught.

We saw her a few times over a week or so.  She didn't want us to walk up to her, but she would come fairly close to us.  Once I was using the chainsaw to cut some trees up and when I turned around she was only about a 100 feet from me.

On the last day of school before Winter Break, I came home and saw the goat standing at the top of my driveway.  I stopped the car to take a picture before the car would scare her away and my older son came out of the woods and told me "Don't worry, she can't go anywhere.  She's tied up."

Yes, he had "caught" the goat and tied her to our dog's chain.  Sticking with our country-singer-names theme for our animals, we named her Jenny, after the singer from Sugarland.

We knew she was pregnant so I went and bought more food for her and we put a sun canopy over the area she was tied up to so that she wasn't getting rained on.  About a week later we told Larry that we had her and he said it was fine because the guys never go to look for the ones that escape anyway.  Later, the guys did tell my oldest son to pay for her or to give her back, I told him I wasn't paying for her (couple hundred dollars) so he would have to take her back.  He told Larry, and Larry paid the guys for her so that we could keep her.  That was NOT my plan, but at the same time I didn't want her or the babies inside her to be killed.

When you're not expecting to own a goat, what else do you do?

On Thursday, January 26th, I received a text message from the college girl that was renting a room from us about some "babies" and after a phone call home, I found out that Jenny had given birth to two babies.  I hurried home, stopping off at a feed store to ask them about goats and pick up some things they said I would need, and called Larry.  I found out from Larry, that my oldest had watched them being born and then run over to tell Larry before he got on the school bus.  Larry had come over and moved everyone into our mud room.

One was up and stumbling around as she learned to walk.  She would talk and move around.  The other one was laying in the straw, not moving, and only opened her eyes twice in about an hour.  I knew nothing about goats so I just sat with them and watched.

Finally, I decided something wasn't right, I wrapped the weak one in a towel and took her back to the feed store to ask for advice. They told me that she was dying and probably wasn't going to make it.  I said that wasn't an option (I know I am just not strong enough to deal with animals dying on my watch) and they said that the only chance she had to survive was to bring her in the house, get heat lamps on her, bottle feed her, and just hope that she improved. 



Baking the babies



 So that is what we did.  We had two goats in a plastic storage tub in my living room, baking under heat lamps. 

We named them Carrie (the white, weak one) and Kelly (the black, stronger one).  Both of them are named after country singers of course - Carrie Underwood and Kelly Pickler.

We spread puppy-pee-pads around the living room floor and after they were warmed up we brought them out of the tub to try to feed them and get them moving.  Kelly was up and walking around and making noise.  Carrie couldn't stand and was struggling just to keep her head up.

Jenny was outside screaming the entire day and Kelly was often yelling as well.  I could tell that they wanted to be with each other. 

I quickly learned how to flip Jenny on to her side without hurting her and had to "pop" her teets from being dried up so that Kelly could feed from her mom.  Kelly was able to do it, but Carrie was too weak and Jenny just didn't want anything to do with Carrie.

So Carrie stayed inside.  She was being bottle fed every 3 hours, day and night.  I slept on the couch with her in a box next to me on the floor.  In the middle of the night she would wake up and cry and I would wake up and feed her.  She would cry if I put her back in the box so I would wrap her in a blanket and lay her on my chest and she would fall asleep on me.  The next day we were able to get her to stand up and walk a few steps.

Faith was jealous, but she did very well with Carrie

Another day went by and I took all three goats outside together.  Jenny did not seem to understand who Carrie was.  I have since learned that sometimes goats (and sheep) will "forget" about their first child while they are giving birth to a second one, and so when they see the first child again later they are confused as to who it belongs to.  I believe this is what happen - along with the fact that Carrie now smelled like us.

He wasn't too thrilled to learn about feeding from a bottle



So Carrie came back in with us when she was done playing that day. That is how things continued for us.  I slept on the couch next to Carrie for about 5 or 6 weeks.  She wanted to sleep on my chest at night, but luckily she wasn't needing to eat as often so I was getting some sleep.

  

Everywhere I went for the first week, she went with me so that I could be sure that she was getting fed at the right times.  There were many waiting rooms that we sat in together while the boys had doctor and dentist appointments.

I would take her outside to play with her sister every day but she would stay inside the house in a play pen when I was at work and at night.




I had her checked by a vet and he did tell me she may not make it because of an infection in her joints, but we were able to get that cleared up within a week or so.  She learned to walk and run and is now 5 months old.  I had to put up a fence to keep Jenny and Kelly in and once Jenny was large enough she was out there with them.  Jenny still doesn't treat her like a child, but Carrie is strong enough now that it's okay.  She and Kelly run around and play together.

When I am outside doing yard work I will bring Carrie out of the enclosure and she will just wander around the yard eating my plants and weeds.  She comes when I call her and doesn't ever stray far from me.  She definitely thinks I am mom, and I am definitely attached.

When people ask my oldest son what he likes to do in his spare time, he constantly says "play with the goats" as the first answer.

And THAT is how we became goat owners.

Her first bite of real food
How can you not love that face?!?!

Who we are

Let me preface this by telling you a little about us...

I am a single mom to two boys and a teacher.  As of today - June 2012 - my boys are 7 and 14 years old.

January 2012

I was born and (mostly) raised in San Diego, CA. We were in the suburbs and I was raised with cats and dogs, nothing more. I did spend 2 of my teenage years on 40 acres about an hour outside of Spokane on a "farm." We had butcher pigs, chickens, dogs, 3 geese, a duck, and my horse. Other than the dogs, the animals weren't pets.  It wasn't a real farm but we had about 20 acres of alfalfa that we cut and bailed and the animals.  We only had the chickens for the eggs, we never ate them.

Besides those two years, I haven't been around farm animals besides petting zoos and county fair type things.  My oldest son and I lived in houses and townhouses San Diego before deciding that we wanted a change and we moved to the N. Virginia area.  My youngest son has only lived in houses and townhouses in the areas near the beltway (near DC.)

I knew that I wanted to own land some day and have chickens (for the eggs) and privacy and peace, but I wasn't sure if I could afford to do that on my single salary. Last summer I was looking to buy a home and was just hoping for a decent size yard.  My agent sent me some listings and I dismissed them as being too far from my work, but one said it had a couple acres.  I quickly did a google map check and realized it was the same distance that I was currently driving and started researching.

I ended up buying the home and we moved out to the semi-country. 

The back of our new house

My original plans were to get another dog (I've had Faith, a purebred pitbull, for 9 years), and some chickens just for the experience for the kids and the free eggs for breakfast.  I also wanted a garden, but otherwise I wasn't planning any "country" things for us.  Although we have a couple acres and we are surrounded by unoccupied acres on three sides of us, we do have a whole housing community across the street and there is a new shopping center a half a mile away from us.  We aren't really that far into the country considering it's a half a mile to the gym, the daycare, and to get milk and butter.

.My plans didn't go as planned... But I'm not complaining :)