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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Walking the goat

**Blogger's note: I am woefully far behind in posting to this blog. These pictures are actually from last week. Gwenny is probably twice as big now, but I had to share the story of her first foray into being a real farm animal!


 Since we are hoping that she will someday grow up to be a dairy goat, I figured it was high time our Gwendolyn started getting used to walking on lead. We decided to go for a walk in the first pasture so that she could meet some of the animals she will someday live with and maybe get some nibbles at the grass out there. We had just wormed Josie a couple of days before, so Gwen should get some of that protection from the milk. This made it the perfect time to go on a little adventure.

 The sheep were extremely curious about the new arrival. 

 Of course Pepper was the first to come over and meet Gwen. 

Pepper is our most outgoing and inquisitive sheep. She also acts as a wonderfully caring auntie to the lambs who she will take under her wing when their mothers are not around. She walked over and stared at Gwen for a good minute before gently lowering her head to touch noses with the baby. Curiosity satisfied she wandered off to graze some more.

 Whoopie and Louise were the next to greet the tiny newcomer. They are a bit on the shy side and were satisfied with just giving her the once over from a distance before moving on.

 It was able this time that Josie took notice of all the commotion amongst the sheep.

 She came charging over, hackles up and horns down. Sacred the be-jezus out of both Gwen and me, let me tell you!

 I growled a warning at her and pulled Gwenny close to me just in a case, but Josie only gave her rear a very thorough sniffing and me a very puzzled look. It was like she sort of remembered her smell, but not that Gwen was her baby. Another low toned warning from me and Josie sauntered off to find some other way to cause trouble.

 Gwenny seemed to enjoy our little adventure. I took the leash off and she prance and bounced around, never getting too far from me. She even nibbled at some of the grass.

Our last visitors before heading in were, of course, the turkeys. Nothing can happen around our farm without them sticking their big, ugly beaks in. They seemed a little too overly interested in the little girl, so I took that as our cue to head back to the house.


I think Gwen was happy to be back in the house. She immediately curled up in her crate with her stuffed lambie for a good long nap.  

6 comments:

  1. I have fond memories of rearing baby goats! I love goats.

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    1. They're stubborn as hell and way too smart for their own good. Haha.

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  2. Well, as an Aunt to Gwen I would like for some pics to be sent to me so I can save them on my phone. I love Gwen and would like to come to NEW ORLEANS to meet Her!!!! :D

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    1. You might want to come to Hammond instead. New Orleans is an hour away! Hehe. I'll try and send you some more pics later tonight.

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  3. I want to come to Hammond, when is it good to come and visit???

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