Lily is my favourite goat, she is half Saanen and half Toggenburg and I bred her myself 2 years ago. She is a sweet natured unassuming little girl and was so eager to please me she became a maiden milker (that is a goat that produces milk without first having a kid). She loved the attention she got on the milking table and although she only managed to give about half a pint, I still went through the motions with her twice daily.
When she was around 18 months old and with her mother getting to the end of her milking cycle, I decided it was time for her to meet a Billy. She was shipped off to a friends where she met with 2 stinky gentlemen, one a Golden Guernsey and the other I nicknamed El Diablo for his dark brooding looks.
I was certain she was pregnant but her milk suddenly dried up and she appeared to come back into heat, much to my disappointment. I had written her off until I noticed she was developing a little udder. I watched her closely and counted down the weeks.
In the meantime I was wrapped up in lambing, plenty of problems there to be keeping me busy and I even had to don the rubber gloves one evening to pull out a baby that was stuck fast, when Himself had gone off to his welding class.
As her time drew near, I separated her into the “birthing suite” and could tell she was relieved to get away from the bully goat Anastasia. A few days before her due date, she was showing signs of labour and of course, it had to be a “welding night”. She laid down, made a noise like someone throwing up and then quickly produced two kids, easy as anything. After all the trauma of lambing it was a piece of cake.
What I did find odd was that the female kid was the spitting image of El Diablo with pricked ears, whereas the boy looked more like a Golden Guernsey with floppy ears. Is it possible they could have different fathers?
