Today we picked up two little twin girl goats. They are only 7 months old. Their names are Hope and Gracie and they are very special little girls. Here is their story:
They were born on a cold night in March at Summer Meadows Farm, and left outside by their mother. When Lyn at Summer Meadows found them, they were unconscious – suffering from hypothermia. She immediately scooped them up, brought them inside and put them into increasingly warm water to try to get them warmed up. She dropped warm milk into their mouths with an eye dropper and hoped. Eventually they stirred and by later morning they were awake. Later that day, to Lyn’s amazement they were able to walk!
Over the next days and weeks Lyn and her daughter bottle fed them and they gained strength, but Hope had an underdeveloped eye and she was much smaller than Gracie. So Lyn kept them close, they followed her everywhere, especially Hope who would stay right by her leg as she walked in order to feel where she was. She couldn’t see out of her bad eye. They were bottle fed and given lots of love, and they made it.
Lyn called me a few months ago. She knew I had been thinking about getting a couple of goats so she told me the story of Hope and Gracie. I knew they were special and despite my strong reservations as to whether I could handle more creatures, I took the girls to go see the twins. Anne of course fell in love when Hope chose her leg to follow.
We brought them home in our truck this evening. They looked a little bewildered when put in their yard, and when we let the chickens out to get to know them. They cried for a while when we closed them in their new house for the night – right next to the chicken coop. It’s part of the same little building but separate from the chickens, covered with a nice thick layer of clean straw. We tucked them in with a bucket of water and another of forage hay and alfafa. And so they spent their first night here – safe and sound. We hope they will soon feel at home!