The cutest babies

My friend Pam and I have the best arrangement.

When she goes out of town I drive 2 miles to her home and take care of her ranch. 4 dogs, 1 cat, a bunch of goats, 1 alpaca, and chickens. She even makes me keep the eggs for us. Now for those who know me you all know how much it is a struggle for me to take care of animals. :) No struggle at all. I love going there and the best part is when we go out of town she keeps my dogs for me at her house. No what will we do with the dogs who should we call this time?

Well this time didn't go as well as usual. She called me about a week before she needed me and let me know and then let me know that it is birthing season for the goats and she had one due any day. The day she was leaving she called to let me know that the momma hadn't had her baby yet but it should be any day and could I check a couple times a day to make sure it goes well. She also let me know that Mango her old decrepit dog was on his last leg, she doesn't think he has more than a couple of months left. And Monty her 4 year old Pyrenees who guards the goats is limping. She thinks a goat may have stepped on his foot. So I headed over that night and sure enough there was a momma goat. I called her and asked her if there was a baby before she left and she said "no, did she have her baby?" My response about to bust "there's two". Twins. The momma was doing fine and was cleaning the babies so we didn't expect any problems until the next morning. The momma had decided to reject the white baby. I called her and she said try to get the mom to feed the baby every 4 hours during the day until she got back. At first mom was distracted with food and let the baby nurse while she was eating but on the 3rd feeding she started scooting around when the white baby tried to nurse. So I moved her to the side of the barn. That worked. The next feeding however she started stamping her foot while she ate to knock the baby off. Uh Oh! It got increasingly harder to get her to let the baby feed from there and I felt terrible wrestling with this mom to get her to feed her baby after she had just given birth to twins but we all survived. Of course a terrible trip wouldn't be complete without a little mystery so on the last day she was going to be gone when I got there the mom had a broken horn. I have no idea what happened other than I was upsetting her making her feed the white baby. The baby is now being bottle fed and doing fine.

This is a picture of the white reject.

This is the red baby. Aren't they just the cutest babies?

Well all is not well that ends well. She called today to let me know that she took Monty to the vet and he has cancer and needs to be put to sleep soon (He really is just a GIANT sweety). He is on pain medicine right now. She was on her way to pick up a 7 week old Pyrenees to train to guard the goats .


I know these pictures are a little blurry. They are also the last for a little while. I dropped the camera on the concrete getting some food to give the mom and the camera took these blurry pictures after and when I got home it wouldn't turn back on at all. I bought it on black Friday a couple of years ago for less than $100.00, so we didn't exactly cry but I do feel lost knowing I can't grab it and start snaping. I carry it in my purse all the time so I have it if I need it. : ( As I said I usually love taking care of her ranch but this was a terrible trip.

And that is the last I am now all caught up.