The Ups and Downs of being a Mom [of a Goat]

(I know, you moms of humans are going to scoff, but I don't care.)

Even though I think of my gliders as my babies, my kids, etc, and they ARE, there is just something different about really being a surrogate mother to something. Bottle feeding or pretend regurgitating for "your" baby who really thinks you are Mom. It is just something different and a bond that really gets to your heart. Why is it that I never end up doing some with someone I GET to KEEP?! Because letting them go after that just takes a part of that heart with them.

I have had Martin, Plicethenese, and now Josie. (Marco ALMOST qualifies, as do a few other rescues we've done, but not QUITE.) Martin was my robin. He was brought to me by a neighbor kid after a cat decimated a nest in his yard. Plicethenese was Epiphany and Heber's Baby who she tried to kill, and succeeded in half blinding before I took him away at 3 days old.

But Josie is just cracking me up... and making me cry... she is just making me crazy both ways, really. I love her!

The Good Stuff

*She likes to sleep at my feet or on my lap while I type. I love it. It makes me feel like I have a dog again.

*That FACE. *melts*

*When she prances, dances, and jumps around the room, yard or playground and seriously shows off. Is there anything as funny as a goat kid playing? Is there some way to bottle that and sell it? Or would it just be labeled some sort of Meth?

*Her soft soft fur, especially after being brushed. ESPECIALLY her soft, gery, velvety ears.

*When she gets all full of herself and tries to butt me. Or the dogs. Or my DAD. It is hilarious.

*Taking her on walks or to play on playground stuff in the park. Good exercise for both of us.
Plus, while there, she's forces me to be social. She is like 2 friends at once... the super popular one everyone runs over to see AND the super shy one who can't speak and makes ME have to talk to people.




The Baaaaah-d Stuff

*This used to be my cute little ear "buds" for my palm pilot and MP3 player... nice ones... skullcandy. SIGH.


*She can SNEAK into rooms that I swear I shut the doors to. Her little jingly cat bell collar and trip-trap billy goats gruff feet seem to have no effect on this fact. SPOOKY!


*I worry a LOT about her progression. Goats learn so much by example. I take her to work and put her in the pen to play with the other baby goats and sheep and learn what she needs to but so far she is NOT getting it and just spends the whole time SCREAMING. Today was the first day she spent the WHOLE work day in the pen except for a half hour break when I came to give her here bottle. She didn't stop screaming that whole time. She didn't play with the other goats or nibble with them or try drinking from a dish. She stayed far away from the strangers, waiting by the gate for "Mom." I don't want her to be messed up. Spoiled is one thing. But Retarded, literally, is quite another.