Our kids

This is a picture of our goats Molly and Bubbles. They are both around 6mos. old. Molly was the first that we brought home. Being new to this we started out doing pretty much everything the wrong way. We had done some research and got lots of advice. It's amazing how you can talk to five different goat owners and they will all tell different ways of caring for goats. I was kind of stressed out about the responsibility and wanting to do everything just right, but over time realized that other than the basics it is really a matter of personal preference and your own situation and environment.

Molly was sort of a quick decision at an auction that we had attended. We were there initially to sell a couple of our roosters and decided to stay after to see the larger animals. We had decided to go with Alpine Dairy goats as we loved their temperament and wanted a good milk goat. I was sitting their with my children and out comes about 6 alpine kids. They started going quickly and there were only a couple of does. The first one went quickly and my boys were both sitting there begging to have this goat and all the while I'm sitting there thinking, " my husband is going to kill me!" I decided to just go for it. We went to take her home and when we got a closer look, realized that she was quite thin. On the way home I was looking at this sweet little goat thinking, "what in the world did I get myself into?". We got her home and got her stall all set up for her and gave her some time to rest.

That day also happened to be my husband's birthday so we decided to call her his birthday surprise!! My Mom and sister came over that evening to join us for cake. They new about the goat, but my husband still did not. After cake we told him we had a surprise for him and had to take him outside. I really wasn't sure how he would react. When we opened the door to the barn we discovered that we hadn't goat proofed her pen very well and she was standing at the door to greet us!! My husband was actually excited about it!! Thank the Lord.

Molly had scours very bad and was very thin. I was frantically researching and found a wonderful sight for beginning goat owners. He told his story about how they got started and how they did everthing wrong as we did. From this experience we learned, never buy a goat from an auction, because more times than not they are sick and never buy just one goat as they need companionship in order to thrive well and not be completely dependant on your attention. It can cause a noisy goat with a lot of behavior problems. We were able to get some wonderful immune boosting herbs for her and I immediately put her on probiotics. We made sure that she was able to browse, have plenty of hay and gave her a good grain with a lot of protein. In the beginning I wasn't sure if she was going to make it, but we pulled her out of it. A majority of her problem was worms and not being fed properly. It also looked as though her feet had never been trimmed. When we got our second goat "bubbles" a couple of weeks later she showed us how to trim her hooves.

She has gained weight, her hooves are in good shape and she has her buddy that she loves to antagonise into playing with her. When we first brought her home, I was a little frustrated and wished we had gotten the healthier doe. But I know now that she was meant to be with us. If she had gone with anyone else, chances are she would have died. She is our little rescue goat and has the sweetest spirit of any animal I have ever been around. When I kneel down to love on here, she looks into my eyes and I know she's telling me she's grateful.