G is for ... "Goats or Guilt?"

Some of you may remember that our girls adopted a couple of day old Saanen goats and hand-reared them. Milly our gentle doe and Molly our funny, bit of a dork of a buck.

Unfortunately our boy Molly became a bit of a handful. We had never had him "fixed" as we thought we'd use him to get Milly in kid but his testosterone was really kicking in and with those big horns of his I was concerned one of the girls was going to get hurt with them having to handle him every morning and evening to and from the goats hut. We were also struggling to find feed for him as he ate like a horse and found our lives revolving around the schedule of these two goats. We'd rush home from places so we could feed them in time or put them away if it rained and so on. We decided that the kindest thing for Molly would be to find him a new home with a few ladies for him to service. Agent Smelly didn't mind as he had gotten a bit rough with her a couple of times whilst they were playing and I think she realised he was getting a bit much for her. Frankly a buck is not really pet material but we never intended to get a buck some of you may recall, but our "she" turned out to be a "he" and a real character to boot.

We could have sold the fella (he's just a huge, majestic looking fella) but we really wanted a kind and loving family where we knew he would be well-cared for so I advertised him amongst the local homeschooling community as being for free as long as he went to the right home. We managed to find a home, not too far away from here, where he would live amongst three other does. Buck heaven people!

We then discussed the idea with The Fashionista of Milly going with him to his new home, as they were happy to take her too as they are going to milk their little herd of goats. TF was very emotional and initially not at all keen on parting with Milly as she absolutely adores that goat, we are talking love with a capital L! Sadly though Milly cannot be left on her own. Even if Molly was moved away from her for a short time, she would bleat and bleat and bleat. She was fine if The Fashionista was nearby her and anytime she heard her little mistresses voice we would hear her start bleating over and over again until TF went out to give her a hug. Milly loved her little mistress just as much as she loved her. She was also prone to escaping to find company. Sadly we had to explain that Milly would be much happier in a little herd and staying with Molly until she herself become a mother, when she would probably be more interested in her kid. We did not force TF but explained the reasons and left the decision to her. She bravely decided that it would be best for Milly too, at times she liked the idea of Milly being in a herd of fellow does, then other times she would worry whether she'd be OK without her to look after her and such. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for a couple of weeks til we could take them to their new home.

Anyway we took the goats off to their new home and just as I suspected TF broke down when we unloaded them. Unfortunately Milly wasn't at all happy either and escaped through their fence to get back to TF. I had to send TF to the car so Milly couldn't see or hear her. It was simply heartbreaking. TF in the car sobbing, Milly on the other side of the fence bleating. I was tempted to tell the Papa to load her back in the trailer cage to bring home. Even the family that took her were upset on seeing TF so distraught and the dad kindly came over to the car and promised her they would look after Milly.

That night TF came down to the lounge sobbing her heart out and fell asleep in my arms with tears still wet on her little face. I looked across at the Papa and he was wiping tears from his eyes as well from hearing her little heart break. We had a few days of tears, mostly at night when she was in bed, but thankfully she hasn't cried for a week now.

The Papa and I felt so guilty about Milly, mostly because of TF' heartbreak, although we were we quite fond of the goats, but we know deep down we did the right thing. Molly needed some girls to mate with and Milly hated being by herself and would have had to have lived on the end of a chain, as I am dead certain she would have found a way to escape her paddock to find someone. That is certainly no life for an animal as far as I am concerned. We are also planning on some big moves early next year and we would have had to find new homes for them then anyway, so this way it is better for them to move now whilst they are still relatively young enough to settle into their new home.

As for Molly he didn't give any of us a second look and was trying to mount their does within about 3 seconds ... seriously could have even been 2!  It was actually a little embarrassing his haste, no how do you do, nothing. We all couldn't stop laughing about it on the way home, especially when one of the little boys at the new property asked what he was doing to their goats. To the end of his stay with us, Molly made us laugh.