Wednesday, March 6

raising gretel....

yesterday, mid morning, a goat quietly gave birth to twins...
not a peep was heard from this sweet mama as she delivered two tiny new creatures in to the world, in to our lives...
first a sturdy kid and but only moments later a scrap of a thing...
the first born was soon up on its feet, i watched and waited to see if the second would follow ...
with no sign of movement i carefully moved the new family in to a clean pen and stood back in the shadows to watch..
the first was soon up and feeding whilst the smallest lay with its head up just watching, not strong enough to attempt the massive struggle to reach nourishment..


calmly i scooped the still wet scrap up, gave her a quick rub down and some magical boost gel, returning her back to her mama's side even before she had noticed...
throughout the next few hours i watched closely as the smallest gathered enough strength to get to its feet for a few short seconds only, never long enough to reach its mama...
i made the decision to offer her a bottle of vital colostrum which she took slowly but it soon became apparent that she was still not able to stand long enough to feed and mama had by now started to show more interest in washing and fussing over the babe that was feeding..
worried that the small scrap was at risk from becoming cold we made the difficult decision to bring her inside to be bottle fed..

here she is..

meet gretel


no name was given on the first day as we honestly were not convinced she would make it..
a silent, still scrap that barely fed and then stopped feeding altogether for twelve very long hours..
all through the night i offered feed but had no response and then this morning, bright and early she drank with gusto!

within hours she was up and dancing around
it was at this point that we allowed her to have the name that i am sure i heard her whisper in my ear :)


it is early days still but gretel is looking strong and has totally and utterly stolen our hearts...

welcome home gretel

{x}

11 comments:

  1. Oh Gretel...How fortunate you are to be with such loving people! Love the pictures...she is adorable!
    Val in Kansas USA

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  2. Welcome to the farm Gretel x

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  3. that has made my heart nearly burst, xx Hello wee Gretal, what a perfect name for you, little one :-) xx



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  4. Awww, beautiful! Welcome Gretel.

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  5. I have no words... but I do have a big lump in my throat. xx

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  6. Hi Tracy, she's beautiful - I think I'll have to adopt her. Love, Elaine

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  7. She is adorable! And of course, I do think it is a very nice name for such a sweet creature. X

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  8. dearest Gretel...
    there was never any chance of this little one having any other name, you have been in my thoughts daily and when i saw this tiny scrap for the first time i just knew who she was :) x

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  9. Awww what a wonderful post, welcome dearest Gretel♥ ♥

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  10. eeek! she is gorgeous. Perfect name too xx

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