Baby Goats!

It has been a very busy week around here and I haven't blogged in 8 days!  Gasp!  Sorry for the absence but it seems that life is getting in the way of blogging!  I think it might be that way for a little while with all the goings-on around here, but I'll try to keep up to date with big news.  So, speaking of big news...four baby goats have been born in the past 2 days on Whispering Acres!

Both Coffee and Lotus had their babies 2 days early, meaning that Coffee's were born on Sunday and Lotus had her babies today (Monday).  All of them were fathered by Valentino the angora buck, who you may remember from the "Green Goat" post last year.

Coffee had two adorable doelings both weighing just over 2 lbs each.  They are both bright white all over, despite Coffee's dark colouring.

Weighing them is fun - we have a hanging scale that goes to 200 lbs, so it's a little hard to be precise in the 2 lb range!

Coffee is a very attentive and caring mother and is very distressed whenever the cat comes nearby!  Of course, since her two babies aren't much bigger than my bantam white chickens, she probably has good reason to be protective!

I just can't get enough of giving these girls kisses and cuddles.  They are inside the barn to ensure they bond well with Coffee and also because we are expecting some really bad storms over the next few days.

Lotus also had two babies - a buckling and a doeling.  They both weighed just under 2 lbs each.  I'm not sure if that's standard for Nigerian dwarf-Angora cross babies or not.  Lotus was pretty huge herself.  She had some trouble with the delivery so I had to assist with the first baby, but after that she was fine with the second.  Here she is still laying down with her two little ones, immediately after their birth.  I had toweled them off a bit for her.

They, too, were quickly up and looking for milk.  I'm really pleased about both sets of goatlings - they seem very healthy and have good sets of lungs (judging by the sounds they make!)

Some quick internet research seems to indicate that white is dominant in angora genetics, so I am assuming that's why all the babies are white despite their multi-coloured mothers.  I hope their fleeces can be harvested and of course, white fleece is lovely for using with dyes, so here's hoping my F1 "pygora" generation grows up strong and healthy!  In the meantime, I just can't seem to wipe that smile off my face!