Goat Date

Esther and Petunia are off on their double date at long last.

The trouble with breeding goats is first we have to find a suitable bachelor - in this case a Nigerian Dwarf buck which is a bit tricky to come by on Whidbey Island and I'm reluctant to take the girls on I-5 in the back of the truck.

Even if we can find an eligible bachelor, the host farm has to be willing to take our girls for as long as it takes for them to get pregnant, as their monthly heat cycles can be hard to tell and who wants to go on a long truck ride and meet new goats when they're hormonal anyways?!

So we took Esther and Petunia back to see Henry, the resident Nigerian Dwarf buck on the farm we originally got the girls from who is not related to either girl and who failed to make us kids with Petunia last year. We're giving him another try with double the odds this year.

The truck ride was a bit tricky. I got up the nerve to load the goats without really enough forethought or planning. I grabbed a bucket of feed and led them successfully into the truck! And then... and then I stood there holding them for a while wondering what to do next. Any rope within reach? No? Hmm.... I closed the tailgate and went to look for rope. The girls hopped out and started eating bushes. Hmm... Eventually I tried again with an empty feed bucket as bait and two of Tilly's harnesses, properly adjusted for each goat, and four lengths of rope. With each goat secured to the center of the truck with no possibility of falling off the sides, both crying loudly and Tilly in the front barking at the crying goats, we started off down the road. Slowly. Very slowly.

With a line of cars behind us leaning out their windows taking pictures (thankfully not honking) and the girls crying and barking respectively, we got lost. I took the wrong turn and ended up 6 miles down at the end of the wrong road. So we pulled into a gas station full of admirers for directions and redirected our course, ending up at the farm right on time to drop off the girls.

Rejoining their familial heard, the girls were not impressed. They stood on a platform near me and looked suspiciously at eager Henry. As I left, they followed from inside the fence, crying loudly and staring after me as Henry sniffed. Hopefully in a few weeks they will be home and pregnant.