Just Kiddin’ Around
I went outside today and found that the kids were playing with our baby goat, Ashley. She thinks that we are her mommy because we feed her goat milk three times a day. She hangs out with the big goats now, but still likes to play with us. This potentially could be a problem in the future when she grows to her expected weight of 120 pounds, but at the moment she thinks she is part of our family, literally.
We once had to raise an abandoned calf by hand. She apparently had a hard birth and her back leg appeared to be out of socket. However, it was just the ligaments that were stretched and had to have time to heal. Her mother just left her because she could not keep up with the herd. When the rancher found her, she was covered in fire ants. They were even up her nose.
Knowing that she had no chance on her own and little chance of living period, my husband, Lane, agreed to take care of her. The rancher did not have the time to devote to one calf. We immediately began trying to get it to nurse from a bottle. To make a long story short, she survived and grew up to be a nice heifer. However, she began to be a pest. Her playful head butts on your leg were one thing, but when she knocks you around as a year-old calf it is dangerous. She did not know that she was a cow or maybe she thought that we were cows. Either way she thought we were all one big happy family. She broke one of our windows for example trying to get in our house. She became such a pest that Lane sold her.
Isaac, Kyla, Jake, and Drew with Ashley playing in the front yard.
So knowing all of this, here are my kids playing with a goat kid, who already thinks that we are her family. Will history repeat itself? I am afraid so, but I hope that she will be small enough to learn her place. I have instructed my children not to let her butt them even though it does not hurt right now. Bad habits develop really fast. I am sure that their days of play are coming to an end. Ashley needs to know that she is a goat. In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy seeing my children “just kiddin’ around” with Ashley.
Only thing worse is when you make a pet out of a bull calf. Later you decide to make him your herdsire. Now you have a 2200 pound “pet”. Get him around cows in heat and he will chase you and your mother around a tree. Scary, I think you were there.
Yes, I was there. It was scary! Thank goodness for the tree.