Hindel Kidz 35: Surprise!
Hindel Kidz 35
Surprise!
Grace was sad. Since Baby Lainie had not survived, this would be the first year without any baby goats. It made it that much harder because Baby Lainie had been such a little sweetheart and Grace had made the mistake of getting attached to her.
On March 28th, Sven and Grace went up to Jack’s to drop off Muffy since they had to take Rhonda to a doctor’s appointment. Sven went inside for a few minutes.
“Guess who’s pregnant?” Jack greeted him.
At first Sven thought it was Bree. Then maybe Bree’s step-mother or Charlotte’s daughter. None of them were right.
“Who?” Sven asked.
“Jane.”
Jane?! None of them had known she was even bred. Ever since Jack had gotten her, she would go over and spend the day with the bucks, then come back over with the other does at feeding time. And in three years she had never gotten bred. She had fooled them all into thinking she was bred the very first year. She was getting pretty fat and now there was a reason for it.
The day before when Jane had walked away from Jack, he saw she had milk. It wasn’t just fat. He had never noticed it before. That’s when he thought, “She might be having a baby.”
When Jack went back out to the building the next morning, there were two babies lying on the ground.
“Oh mercy.”
He didn’t know Jane had kidded. Unfortunately one of the babies was a stillborn. It had been a light caramel color like Jane and had been a girl. He asked Sven if he wanted to get the stillborn freeze dried. Sven had talked about freeze drying a stillborn pygmy so people could see what a newborn baby goat looked like and how big it was. He wanted to get Ruby’s stillborn’s freeze dried for Jack as a Christmas gift, but they were too small. Jane’s baby was fully developed.
But the other one had been born alive. It was a charcoal gray agouti and also a doe. But since Jack hadn’t known he hadn’t turned the heat lamp on and the baby was shaking and shivering. He had taken it to the birthing pen and put two heat lamps on it. It was all he could do.
When Sven, Grace and Rhonda got ready to go, Sven drove around to the back and told Grace to go look in the birthing pen. She knew for sure it had to do something with a baby goat. At first she thought Jack might have bought a baby goat to raise. When she saw the baby the first thing she asked was, “Who?”
Jane was not in the birthing pen yet so Grace thought she might have rejected her baby. She had not been a good mommy the first time around. Grace had always tried to be hopeful, but since Baby Lainie hadn’t made it, Grace was worried about this baby making it. After all Baby Lainie had been a twin also.
“Oh you poor little thing,” Grace said as she watched the baby shake and shiver.
When they returned from town, Grace wanted to check and see if the baby was still alive. She was. Grace picked her up to cuddle her and Jane started bellowing and pushing against Grace’s legs. It looked like Jane was going to be a good mommy this time. She would bellow when she didn’t know where her baby was or when someone was holding her. Since the baby’s head was gray, Jack thought the daddy was Elmer. If the baby had any brown in it then the daddy would have been Rob. The baby nipped and chewed on Grace's neck and chin. Jack said he had just fed her and she was still hungry. He said he would milk Jane again to make sure the baby got some milk. Jane would let her baby eat, but the baby’s suckling wasn’t strong enough to get any milk out.
The next day Jack was still in total shock. He just couldn’t get past the fact that Jane had been bred without him realizing. Meryl couldn’t believe it either. She was also surprised that Jane was a good mommy. Jane must have been bred in late November 2011. Jack had had knee surgery so Sven and Grace were in charge of feeding the goats.
What Grace hated was what was Savannah going to do when she learned about the new baby? Would she drag her around like she did Baby Lainie? When Jack said Savannah didn’t know about it yet, it made Grace feel better. He and Charlotte decided not to tell Savannah until they were sure the baby was going to survive. In Grace’s mind the longer Savannah went without knowing the better.
However she found out they still don’t know. Only five people knew Jane had kidded. According to Savannah she knew Jane was going to have a baby. She didn’t the foggiest what she was talking about. Jack didn’t even know Jane was bred. And he had been around her every day. Savannah never came down to see the goats unless there was a new baby. And that was only until the new wore off. Savannah and her step-sister, Joey, were already arguing about who would get to show the baby at the fair. Jack said he wasn’t going to get put in the middle of it, but he also wasn’t going to say no either. Grace thought he should have told them the baby was not going to be shown at the fair at all. Savannah said Joey usually gets whatever she wants. Savannah was related to Jack by blood. She was his real granddaughter while Joey was just his step one by marriage. Blood is thicker than water. If Savannah does get to show the baby then Joey still has first pick out of the rest of the goats.
When the baby was four days old, she was acting more like a baby goat should. She was more active than Baby Lainie had been at four days. Jack said the baby hadn’t been drinking from the bottle for three days. It must have meant Jane was feeding her and she was finally able to get some milk. Otherwise she would have been dead by now.
The first name that came to Grace’s mind was Miracle because that it what this baby had truly been. They had all been blessed by the coming of Baby Jane who was later christened Susie.
