EXTENDED FAMILY

So my daughter and my son-in-law took some idiot pills and decided to get another goat.  They already have two -- PC and Blackberry -- who are cute and lovable and figure that Kitty only exists to feed them.  So, late this afternoon Christina and Walt got another goat.  By "another goat," I mean two goats.  Two three-week old Nigerian Dwarf goats, each smaller than their cat.  Following the computer-theme for naming goats, these two are called Fire and Gateway.

     The thing about three-week-old goats is that they are not weaned.  They will have to be bottled-fed for the next few weeks. 

     Not much of a problem, except only one of the two has ever been bottle-fed before.  Enter Kitty and your humble correspondent.

     Now, goats are cute.  They are soft and friendly and don't smell too much.  They gambol and prance and jump on things to gain the higher ground.  They chase Mark and Erin and they love to play.   They also love to be held.  Except when it's time to be bottle-fed.  Then only one of them loves to be held.

     Erin got the easy job:  feeding Fire, who was hungry (and experienced) and polished off his bottle in record time.  Christina and Mark got the not easy job, with Christina holding Gateway and Mark trying to give him the bottle.  Didn't work.  Time to call in the big guns -- not that Kitty has big guns, but that she...er...never mind.  Suffice to say that Kitty and Christina were soon bathed in formula, with none ending up inside the goat.   Walt and I are then added to the feeding brigade.  Somehow we got the nipple in Gateway's mouth while Kitty gently squeezed the bottle.  It took a while, but the goat got some formula -- maybe a quarter of the bottle.  While Gateway was being fed we had to keep pushing Fire out of the way; he knew what was in the bottle and wanted it for himself.

     The young goats have to be bottle-fed four times a day.  Next feeding time should be about 5:30 in the morning.  Make that 5:15.  Or 5:00.  The process is going to take some time.

     So we now have added two to our extended family.  We are very proud goat grandparents.

     But, God help us, Christina and Walt are now talking about chickens.