Happy New Year's Eve....

We were surprised early this morning with a BABY!! Rachel, one of our younger does, was walking around outside with a bit of a blob hanging out. Abbey walked around the pasture area and didn't see anything so naturally....she came running in saying there was some blood on a goat and in the pen.

Nice wake-up call.

She bolted back out while I hunted for my boots. Silly me...they were in the truck, of course. Doesn't everyone keep boots in the truck? (Someone wore them out yesterday and took them off, tossing them in the truck.....ugh)

As I headed out, Abbey popped out of the barn and yelled "there's a BABY in here!". We tracked down the momma, Rachel, just walking around with the other does in the pen. Her baby, was curled up with our male Great Pyr :) He *loves* babies. I'm pretty sure it was Buddy who cleaned off baby. Rachel seems a bit clueless this first time. She sniffed at the baby, licked a bit around her head and ears, but she was relatively uninterested. Buddy, on the other hand, is the all Proverbs 31 momma material....for a male, anyway.

Lady, our german shepherd mix was beside herself waiting outside that barn to be told she could come in. Jennifer took the baby over for her to see....Lady was tearing down the gate, barking up a storm she was so excited! LOL. She checked that baby out from stem to stern, sniffed at Rachel to make sure they belonged together, and she and Buddy have taken up guard duty outside the 'nursery pen' now.

So, surprise :) We are scrambling to finish birthing pens now. We weren't expecting babies for *at least* 3 more weeks! Got me a little worried now....time to hustle!

Oh, and we did milk out Rachel and bottle feed the baby this morning to be sure she got colostrum. Rachel has been letting her nurse now, so we're stepping back and watching to see things go well. I think maybe she just needed to be penned alone, enclosed and private :)