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Sunday, February 22, 2015

Luci gets a 5-star rating

Yesterday,  Luci kicked off the Capra Lane 2015 kidding season! She delivered triplets yesterday evening, textbook births, no rearranging, no excitement. Just how we like it.

She had triplets by Rancho Snowfall King for a Day, 2 buck kids and 1 doe kid who will be retained here at Capra Lane.




The boys are staying with mom and are happily snuggled under a heat lamp. Luci is proving to be an excellent mother, given that this is her first time raising kids.



The doe kid has been named Capra Lane L King's Linden and she is currently seeking round the clock attention in the basement kid pen accommodations.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The new cat

A few days ago, we had a new visitor show up in our barn. A small-ish black cat with green eyes, male. Incredibly sweet. Almost too clingy, as its difficult to do chores without him underfoot. He is a head-butting purring machine. He was thin, a bit stuffy and quite bold as he was not fazed by our resident barn fatties and trotted over to help himself to the feed bowl and water dish.


I called the neighbors, he wasn't theirs. He came and went for a day or two but now it seems he is here to stay. I figure someone dropped him off, he is waaaaay too friendly to be a stray and seems to want to stay in the barn and doesn't venture outside unless we are there.


So we are calling him Kitty. Very original. We thought about BP, short for Black Panther, but I keep forgetting it. 

He is making friends with the goats, especially the babies. Weaving under them, butting their chins, swishing his tail in front of them. They are very tolerant and love the attention. So yesterday, BP / Kitty decided to introduce himself to Blessing, the guard llama. Blessing obviously shares the barn with our old time barn cats, so it didn't really cross our minds that she wouldn't like him. She leaned down to him to take a sniff and he gently rubbed his head on her chin. In an instant, wham! She flipped him over with her front feet and stomped him!

So I guess we have legitimate proof she is doing her job? He is new, an 'intruder' and unfamiliar. I'm sure soon she will recognize that he is not a threat and leave him alone. 

Don't worry, he's fine. He shook it right off. Then the dummy went right back in the pen, but now he's down to 8 lives. . . 

So last night, I was apparently concerned for Kitty's safety. We figured the solution would be to let Blessing, the guard llama,  sleep in our bedroom so they wouldn't be unsupervised together. 


She curled up on the floor on Rog's side of the bed and propped her head up by our feet. She was very quiet and very courteous and didn't really fidget at all. When I woke up I saw she was gone so I figure Rog had already headed outside to do chores and walked her out without waking me. And then I woke up for real! Holy crap- that was a very vivid dream. I can clearly see her fluffy back poking over the side of the bed.

I always figured a dream about Blessing would be more of a nightmare, she is still moderately creepy to me.


I did not, in fact, let the llama come in my house. That is not my house, not a fan of the peach and aqua color scheme. But the photo does provide proof that someone, somewhere had a llama in their living room.


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Almost kidding time!



The first time I stuck my arm in a goat’s vagina I was apprehensive and frantically trying to regurgitate the chapters on abnormal birth presentations while not regurgitating my lunch. The second time I felt more prepared and less anxious and a bit more confident about feeling the difference between hooves, noses and tails. The third time I ended up with the contents of an amniotic sac down the front of my overalls. Its quite small in there. It's like fishing for a slimy chicken leg in a bowl of jello. When you push, it pushes back and when you grab a leg, it kicks. 

We're a little over 2 weeks away from the first Capra Lane Babies of the year- let the fun begin!