There once was a goat named Kissy. She had a beautiful life with her mama (Hershey) and they played together and frolicked in the sunshine. But one day, Kissy’s Aunt Carrie attacked Hershey. She was hurt so badly she was not able to walk right any longer and had to retire from breeding and live the rest of her life as a pet on another farm. Poor Kissy was traumatized. She vowed never to trust another goat again. Could humans be trusted? She was now unsure! She became paranoid.
Fast forward three or so years. Kissy has been at her new home for nearly two years. Her Aunt Carrie’s daughters were also moved to this farm but she made sure to bash into them daily to show them they could not mess with her like their mother had messed with hers. No, she would NEVER let anyone hurt her. She would never let anyone in.
Present day: Kissy is still her paranoid self. She glances around the barn door suspiciously. She wonders what your evil plan is and she thinks she is always one step ahead of you.
Kissy gave birth Friday/Saturday to twin babies (see the last blog entry for more about her labor). For the first day she accepted her babies as she always has done in the past. But then she realized that something was not right with her buckling. What was it? OH! He has no ears! Someone is clearly out to get her. That can not be her baby. Who has stolen her baby and replaced it with this monster? This is not okay! She stomps her foot and makes a mad noise and charges at him. She bites his tiny ear. She is not going to be fooled. This is not her baby.
(Well actually it is because she gave birth to one doeling with long ears and one buckling with short ears–let me add that Kissy herself has short ears but clearly is unaware of this fact. She has had six babies with long ears and never a short eared baby until this year.)
So that is the story of Kissy the Paranoid Goat and how we have a goat living in our house.
Not having planned for a goat in the house, we have been trying to get him back outside with his mother. If she doesn’t see his head and we stick him under her to nurse, she is okay. She smells his rear end, recognizes her own milk smell from the rear (a goat thing, ya’ll) and accepts him. She is happy. She coos to him. But if he dares to crawl out from under her and she sees his ears–suddenly she is not okay. Not okay at all. Boy is she NOT okay! Things get ugly fast. So we’ve taken to picking him up right away when he’s done eating and taking him back inside.
I had a wonderful idea…what if we glued long ears to his head? Okay I am not really putting glue on my goat but I did the next best thing–I found the bunny ears that I bought last year to torture the cats with and put those on him!
Kissy thought this was strange but she thought, well, that’s my kid. All good. Until the ears slipped off. You should have seen the look she gave us. Her expression said, “You DARE think you can trick ME? You think me a FOOL? UNACCEPTABLE. OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!!!!” Because goats can really be quite dramatic. And then she went back to attack mode.
Yesterday Christine took him out to nurse and waited to see what Kissy would do. We’ve read sometimes goats will decide to accept a baby they rejected if you keep introducing them. (Many goat people do not believe it’s the ears but we know our goats very well.) Kissy looked him up and down…she looks at him sideways. She turned her head almost upside down staring at him trying to figure out if he could possibly be hers. But no, she decided he could not be.
So that’s where we are at with Kissy. We love Aspen, our house goat. How beautiful does he look? He fits right in with our household. He loves being a house goat; he and Mochi (cat) have formed a tight friendship. He loves snacktime and TV time best. He also likes going outside for mommy milk and to play with his sister.
