Yeah, these ones!! These adorable babies!
Look how proud he is for disturbing my sleep!
Especially this one! Look at him!
Pete (top picture) and Ole (bottom picture) were born sometime Wednesday morning, and we weren't prepared for them because we weren't expecting their mama - Daisy - to give birth That Day. She was fat, sure, and her udder was getting a bit full, but we've never had baby goats before, so we still weren't 100 percent sure.
So my dad went out to do morning chores - Mom had to go into her job early - and heard something odd coming from the goat pen. When he got there, he found two mysterious piles of white - that looked oddly like snow - that were making some very unhappy noises. Pete (who's not totally white, he's actually really beige) was already cleaned off, had a drink (we could feel his tummy was full), and walking around. Ole was still wet, still hungry, and half frozen. His legs were partially frozen and didn't work, the tips of his ears were frozen and black, and he was very very cold.
Dad came in to wake me up - I thought he was kidding - and brought all the goats into the warm part of the shed. When I showed up he put Ole in my lap and told me to dry him off and warm him up, which was pretty difficult because he was so cold.
We tried to get Daisy to feed them, but she wouldn't even pay attention to them. We got some milk out of her, and managed to squeeze some milk from a rag into Ole's mouth. He was still in bad shape, and Pete would need some milk soon too. Dad sent me into town to get nipples and bottles so we could manually feed them. When I got back from town, we brought the babies into the house, I sat in a recliner, and Dad put Pete and Ole on my lap to warm them up while he milked Daisy.
Pete was sleeping, but Ole was still trying to warm up (he's not really sleeping in the top picture, just resting). I got to see Ole finally take his first steps when he warmed up, and we managed to get lots of milk in him from the bottles. After another nap on my lap (which is the best experience ever) we brought them back to Daisy. Apparently all she needed to get her butt into gear was to be separated from them for a while. They started feeding and she began cleaning them.
They're a few days old now, and starting to bounce (bouncing baby goats are the best thing ever). Pete's started climbing things, and Ole is making a valiant effort to do the same, but he still hasn't quite figured out how legs work yet. Ole is much more friendly that Pete, and if he's picked up he falls asleep almost instantly in whoever's arms he's in - just like a cat, and they're almost the same size as our cats right now. They also sleep quite a bit, and they're just as hard to photograph as their mama.
Also, our Nanny goat, Petunia, really does not like being stuck in a pen with far too many small and active goats.
I loved reading about these goats!
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