About six months ago we decided we were going to sell Patty (their mom) and her sister Kelly. They are both nice goats who milk VERY well, but Patty has a bit of a personality issue. When we had fewer goats and milked one at a time, she was fine. When we started milking four or five at a time, she became a real pill.
Patty likes to bully the other goats on the way in the door, likes to sample the meals from their feed buckets while on the stand (and will bite the ears of the goat whose food she thinks she should be eating)), and then refuses to leave the milk parlor without sampling feed from every bucket first. ...it's ALL THE SAME FOOD!
Because Patty and Kelly are sisters and quite bonded, we decided we had to sell them together. We thought it would be a great idea to get them bred about five or six months apart so that their new family would have a nice, year-round supply of milk. In that vein, Patty got bred on the day of the Jakarta disaster.
So, not a week after being bred, Patty caught wind of or plan to sell her and came up with a serious hoof problem. She got a deeply cracked hoof wall and then also developed rot underneath it, but way up in the hoof. She immediately started a bad limp and then started walking on her knees as the rot (which we neither saw nor smelled at the time) set in. She was completely unsalable within days of being bred.
It has been a long, hard slog rehabilitating her, but she is finally close to normal again. Close. And in the meantime we have two kids. Oh well, at least Patty is milking like crazy. A gallon a day at only a few days fresh.
And we actually have a buyer coming to look at the kids today, so we'll see how it goes.
Here are updated photos of the little nuts. They are sweet, sweet, sweet. And actually, I kind of like the little late season surprise.
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