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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Goats and grey hairs

I think goats were put here to take care of any hairs our children failed to turn grey. A month or so ago, my mother and I were outside working. We paused to take a rest and noticed that Tally was laying up against the fence in a weird position. I got up and started walking toward the fence to check on her. She didn't move, not even an ear twitch. As I got closer it appeared as if her eye was partially open and still she didn't move. By then, my heart was pounding, I just knew our sweet Tally was dead somehow. I arrived at the fence and crouched down, reaching through the fence toward her. She still didn't move a muscle. I touched her, fully expecting to touch a goat that was cold and stiff. She wasn't cold and stiff, she felt completely normal but she still hadn't moved. I gave her a slight shake and her head snapped and she looked around at me like "What? Why did you wake me up?"  My lungs began to work again and I believe I actually felt a hair turn grey.

I guess its a really good thing I wasn't a wolf or a coyote. She would've been half eaten before she got around to waking up.

Then last night we gave them their pre-breeding vacs,Bo-Se shots and copper bolusing (BTW, when bolusing, peanut butter is your friend. I couldn't believe how much easier it went when using peanut butter to hold the bolus in the bolusing gun until we depressed the plunger). And of course we stood out there for a bit to make sure that none of them were going to have a reaction to the vacs.

This afternoon my mother was outside and noticed that Lacey was laying flat out on her side with her head cocked at a weird angle, completely unmoving while the other two lay together on the other side of the pen. My mother hollered at Lacey. There was no response. She ran out there and opened the gate, still Lacey lay unmoving. My mother ran up to her and reached to touch her and Lacey yanked her head and looked at my mother like "What? Why are you waking me up?" I bet my mother could feel a few hairs turn grey.

I guess its good thing my mother wasn't a wolf or a coyote.

Sometimes, I guess goats just sleep really heavily. Or maybe the LaManchas just like playing jokes on us.

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