Goats in coats!

HOW am I supposed to get anything done around here with this sort of cuteness luring me away from absolutely everything else??

Today marked a week since the goat triplets were born. Rosie is doing MUCH better after her near-death experience last Sunday! She is eating well and like her sister and brother, is playful and cute. We weighed them all today. Rosie is 7.5 lbs, Annabelle is 8.5 lbs, and Luc is 9 lbs!

Here are Rosie and Luc a couple of days ago...

Luc and Annabelle

Luc. He has huge feet and legs!

Since those pics were taken, the kids have grown even more! They were super-playful today, not to mention cuddly. 

Rosie kept suckling on my hair...

...my eyelid..

...my nose...

...and my earlobe, which is incredibly ticklish!!!

When I checked the goat-cam this morning the kids were climbing all over Maamaa, wanting her to get up and serve breakfast!

That's a Sweeter Heater hanging from the ceiling. The surface only reaches 185F so they are not a fire hazard. I am now terrified of heat lamps (too many barn fires around here!) and don't use them in the barn.

The kids are being fed supplemental formula three times a day. Penny is producing more milk now but it's not enough for triplets. So we bottle-feed them as well.

I tke them down to the barn in my overalls and they stay nice an warm!  :0

Gordon does a great job feeding them too!

He is VERY smitten with the kids. Tis is Annabelle.

I think it's looooove!

Today I put bigger coats on Annabelle and Luc!

Penny and Annabelle... food chain!

Rosie still fits into her sweatshirt sleeve, but not for much longer! As you can see, she is obsessed wtih my earlobe.

Keaton is just obsessed with ME. He pesters me for lovin' anytime I'm down in the barn. Now he has taken to climbing on my shoulders while I clean out box stalls!

Sisters Honey and Daisy, two of my five cats from Syros, Greece where my friend Joan runs a cat rescue.

And their other sister, Daisy..

...who is anything but fragile!

Meanwhile poor Tristan was being watched over by Alex and Honey the other day...

...poor old dog! Cats rule, dogs drool.

And this is one of my favourite #felfies (farm selfie) ever...

Keaton and Saul just squeezed up to me like this while I was standing there! Keaton and Saul have been continuing their bromance.

More goat kids pics to come. If you are wondering, we are keeping the babies. The animals here are all pets, and when we take in animals from the OSPCA, we feel we have an obligation to provide lifelong care (fine by us!) Penny was preggars when she arrived, so I consider her babies OSPCA rescues too. Now, I am pretty sure my other three does are knocked up too, but that happened after the guys arrived and we decided to keep everyone together until the boys were neutered in December. We will be keeping those future kids too. I am just hoping that the other gals don't all have triplets!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! 

Not one... not two... but THREE!

Sorry for taking so long to post about this, but I'm exhausted! On Saturday around 3 pm, Penny the Ontario SPCA rescue goat popped out...

 

...TRIPLETS! Two girls (red sweaters) and a boy.

After the birth, Maamaa got a bucket of warm water with molasses in it.

Everything went okay. Penny popped them all out without a peep. She has clearly done this before!

Boy, who doesn't have a name yet!

Annabelle.

We have a baby monitor wireless cam in there, and got some screenshots!

Making sure the babies nurse! Buttercup the cat came up from behind to check things out.

Photo op!

Sweeties. We had quite a scare yesterday when nearly lost one of the girls.

This little girl had become lethargic and cold. With the help of a goatkeeper friend, we figured out that Penny simply wasn't putting out enough milk! 

My friend Debbie and I then set to work while we waited for goatkeeper friend to show up. She had us put the little one in a plastic bag, then immerse the bag in a sink of warm water for 15 ninutes to warm her up. We ended up doing this twice, and by the time the goatkeeper arrived, Debbie and I were sure the little one was going to die. We had even gotten a bit of colostrum and milk into her, but she became increasingly lethargic, and finally even stopped crying. We tucked her up in the bathroom on a heating pad with warm blankets and left her while we went out to the barn to check on Maamaa.

When we came back in the house, we fully expected to find a dead kid. Instead, she'd opened her eyes and perked up!

She has been doing much better ever since. All three kids started getting supplemental bottles yesterday.  I've gotten good advice from several friends with goats. We have to be very careful not to overfeed the babies, but at the same time, we need to make sure they are getting enough milk (especially the little one!)

So we're bottle-feeding every six hours or so for the moment, and giving out lots of goat cuddles.

Penny is a very good mother, despite not having enough milk (we are working on that, too, as best we can!)

The little boy is a hog...

BUt adorable!

The little girl we saved yesterday is name Rose or Rosie in honour of the goatkeeper friend who came over to help us. Her middle name is Rose. :)

Here is one of the cuter videos I took this weekend:

I'll keep you posted. It's nerve-wracking!

Winter's here!

When we got up this morning, it was -31C... which was harder to take than it would have been had it not been 17C on Christmas day! What a drop.

Emily didn't mind...

...she was warm and cosy on the bathroom windowsill! Yesterday was her Gotcha Day. She was dumped here four years ago in the bitter cold as a 6-week-old kitten. As you can see, she's doing just fine.

And Pip and Mootie were being hilarious today...

And sigh, I remember when I thought having four cats TOTAL was a lot, never mind just four cats hanging around a chair...

...that's Alex lurking underneath!

I got Gordon a special mug to commemorate our little driving mishap with his Fjord horse Sandy...

She trashed the cart she is hooked up to in the photo on the mug! After it overturned (in December when we were learning to drive at a horse camp weekend), Gordon said "Even teddy bears kill!" (because usually Sandy is a big teddy bear.) Of course I had to turn that into a mug!

Meanwhile, in the maternity ward...

NO KID YET! But her udder looks a bit bigger today. One of my goatie friends thinks she'll pop the kid on January 8th.

Buttercup caught herself a mouse today!

Keaton wanted to steal it from her but she was having none of it! She hissed until he left.

I spent some time with the pigs this evening administering belly rubs and brushing their coats. Henry is still not amused with his new lot in life but he is doing okay! He was pouting for the photo, but then he got up and starting rooting around in the hay and acting like a normal pig. I also fed him supper from my hand. He is super gentle, unlike the rest of the porcine hooligans!

Rudy got another belly rub too!

And after supper, we played a game I got for Christmas from my friend Ronna...

...because we don't have enough real-life LFE ON THE FARM!

And he beat me! The b*stard! :)

Have a great evening!

No kidding... yet. Sigh!

First of, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Wishing you all a most wonderful 2016!

Meanwhile...

...we are still on kid-watch here. Because I don't have any idea when Penny was bred, knowing when her kid will be born is a crap-shoot. Plus I am such an ignoramous when it comes to goats! Some goat friends have been helping out. One thinks the kid or kids will be here January 8th, another thinks the 3rd week of January... sigh. All I know, after staring at poor Penny's whoo-ha every day since December 22, is that she's not ready yet!

Genny and Penny did enjoy some spruce boughs yesterday!

Penny can't understand why I keep photographing her backside!

Genny can't understand why she's being kept prisoner with the preggars one!

Today I completely cleaned out their stall...

...and put in nice fresh straw! Redford came to inspect. When the baby is nigh, you can't leave a bucket of water in there just case maamaa gives birth into it. But I'm confident now that nothing is imminent, so they have a bucket for now.

Meanwhile...

...Tristan got a cruller from his friend Luc!

And he loved it! Luc is doing lots of work at our place, and he often gives me a hand with things like goat-wrangling or hoof-picking. He has a soft spot for Tristan and often brings him treats.

Meanwhile, poor Henry... 

...is integrated with the other OSPCA pigs, but he's not thrilled. The poor guy, I don't think he realizes he's a pig. He seems appalled by the louts he lives with. We are still giving him extra love and attention.

The winter pen is really warm and comfy now that the granary has been spray-foam insulated. And once we got the propane set up, the whole place will have heated floors, too.

 The other goats are enjoying winter...

...and hay!

Kevin has magnificent horns. He's a very good boy! He and Geoff have recovered well from their neutering in November.

Today everyone got some spruce boughs, and later Gordon took them our entire Christmas tree!

Geoff highly approves!

They are really nice boys.

 

Finally went snow-shoeing on New Year's day!

New Year's eve, we visited the critters down in the barn...

There were many cats.

And kisses for Buttercup!

xoxo