Blessings Amid Loss

We have been having fun bottle feeding our triplets, along with trying to foster them with a couple other of our "Mom's" who only had one baby this year, because they lost their Mom this last Sunday. Showgirl, one of my favorite Boer's because of her fun comedic attitude was a really good attentive mother up until the end, but I think she must have had complications from their birth because when DH found her that day she had blood on her back end. I was a bit upset with loosing her, but having our niece here helped take my mind off it.

The triplets are easy to tell apart now, because the two black ones aren't the same anymore...one of them is more brown than the other. The smallest "black" one is actually black like her father, where the other one is kinda brownish black...one of these days maybe I'll manage to get a GOOD photo of them, so you can see the difference too. I didn't get any really GOOD ones this afternoon, although you can see it somewhat in the photo below. LOL


Since their Mom died, we have been feeding the babies 2-3 times a day, partly by putting a couple of the other Mom's (who just have one kid) in the stanchion, and then supplementing them with some of Mabel's Milk. It's been an adventure that's for sure. *giggle*


I never thought that I would find a blessing in Jane loosing one of her babies earlier, but we have now. She does the best with the kids, when we put her in the cow stanchion and give her some extra food, she stands still and lets them eat, even though they are fighting over her two teats...since there are three of them. It's so funny to watch them...and listen to them even. *giggle*


The little black and white one is the funniest (I think she may have her Mom's attitude!!!) because if one of the black ones manage to get the teat away from her, she will sit there and scream at them till she gets it back. We both laugh at her when she does it, cause it just sounds so funny...she does like to have her own way...and she IS a pig, I'm been calling her Miss Piggy. Hopefully we can come up with a name for her soon, before that one sticks. *giggle*


At first, when we gave them the bottle with cow milk in it, we had to pry their mouth open to stick the bottle in it...but after a few feedings of doing that, we have gotten them all to take it without any trouble. I HAD to help at first, cause DH would be making sure the "Mom" did what she was suppose to (and not trying to lay down so they couldn't nurse, like Carmel has tried to do more than once), while I took one and laid it on my lap, and taught it to eat from a bottle...and then switched them out when that one was done. Now he could do it himself if he needs to, but it's so fun I've been going out and helping anyway. LOL

At first they wouldn't scarf it down, even when I got the bottle in their mouth, but it wasn't long before they figured out they could suck it down real easy, and they would really latch on and drink it down...once I got the bottle in their mouth. The next thing we knew they latched onto the bottle without help, although the small black one was the slowest at all the steps. We hope to teach them to drink it from a pan soon too...although I'm having a lot of fun watching them drink it from a bottle. Least we know if these three survive we will have three little girls who are really friendly! :)

Tonight, the brownish black little girl actually came looking for the bottle right off, instead of trying to fight the other two for a teat. *giggle* I'm thinking she has figured out its WAY easier to get a bottle than try to get it from the Mom's...and especially from Carmel, since she is still being a stinker about the whole thing. *snicker* It's so fun seeing their personalities emerge and playing Mom to them.

God has blessed us once again this year with our babies...and with a way to raise them without resorting to to much "formula", as it seems we haven't had good luck with any kids who were raised on that dry powdered milk for goat kids. I would rather have not lost Showgirl, but I'm thankful that it seems (at least so far) that we may be able to raise the girls without their Mother, and end up with the biggest blessing of all...three more goats who are super friendly. I'm praying that all goes well, so we can watch them grow up and have babies of their own.

Since Mabel isn't giving a lot of milk lately, it's probably a good thing that Daisy has calved now, cause we may be needing to use some of hers soon...if we can get her to let us have some...we may have to separate the calf from her till she gives it to us if she doesn't start letting us have some soon. From talking to a few others who have had milk cows and calves, that's what they had to do, to teach the Mom's to give up their milk. I hate that idea, but...we NEED the milk, so I guess ya gotta do, what ya gotta do. Those three kids are probably going to start needing more than Mabel gives us soon...so hopefully Daisy will start doing her job before that happens. LOL

There are more photos of the goats on flicker as well as a couple new ones of the calf. Tomorrow hopefully I'll show off our newest (and probably last for the year) baby goats that were born a couple days before the calf was. I haven't managed to get any half way decent photos till today...cause I was spending time with our nieces. They left today, so I managed to get out there this afternoon with my camera for a little bit. :) So if you don't want to visit flicker, I'll share those two babies on here tomorrow, unless something keeps me from blogging. (I DO have a bit of catching up to do tomorrow to, so we will see how much time I have.)

Gotta run, it's getting late and I still have a couple things to do before bed...which I'm really ready for, as we had to get up shortly after 4 this morning to get the milking and kid feeding done before leaving for a early Dr appointment. Catch ya later!