Puddles Of Goats

There are now five baby goats!  That means baby goats sleeping together and playing together in puddles all over the place.  Twilight Sparkle and June Bug had their babies, and June Bug had twins again.  Sparky's baby is huge....I had thought she might have twins, but it was just one large kid.  She's a smaller goat, and I was worried about her.

May and April's kids are old enough to be rambunctious and playful.  It's interesting to see how the different mothers are with their kids.  Just like people, they have different styles of mothering - sometimes very loving, and sometimes kind of heartbreaking.

May is a really good mama - after her baby was born she stood away from the herd, not going out to graze, but guarding her baby and making sure it was clean and letting it nurse.  April is the sort of mother who cares more about her stomach.  She abandons the baby to go graze, and doesn't care if it is crying and trying to find her.  It's big enough to follow her around now, but it gets tired after awhile and curls up to sleep.  April just leaves it, and keeps eating.

Two evenings in a row she left the baby somewhere in the back field and then freaked out later when she couldn't remember where it was.  She was bleating hysterically (while she was still eating) and we all had to go out and find it - it was quite difficult to find...it's amazing how old dried-out cow pies look like a sleeping baby goat from a distance.

Another funny thing - April and May's babies are almost identical.  They are all being born around the summer solstice, so this year we are choosing names from Shakespearean fairies, specifically A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mab (April's baby) and Titania (May's baby) have only a few very slight differences in appearance.  Titania has slightly more white hairs on her forehead, and a tiny white splotch on her belly.  She is slightly larger than Mab, but otherwise they look the same.  Even the mamas were getting confused!

It's so fun to have so many babies at once.  More to come - Cricket and Firefly have not kidded yet.