Sad Lucille

We thought that Lucille was pregnant with at least 2 kids. Goats can easily have 4, sometimes even 5. She is the oldest of the goats we have, and mother to the 2 other recent moms.

Yesterday Lucille gave birth to one dead kid. This happened very early in the morning before The Husband went out to feed them. We are not sure if it was born dead or died because of some issue during the birth. Because we were pretty sure she had more than 1 kid in there, we spent the rest of the morning waiting to see what would happen.

I called our friend the Goat Lady, who gave us Lucille a few years ago now, but she didn't call me back until later in the day. I also called the vet, and they had me come down to pick up a shot of oxytosin, which would induce labor if there was another kid in there.

Nothing happened other than Lucille took me in the barn and showed me the spot where her dead kid had been. She nosed around in the hay and looked back at me as if to say "he was right here, what happened?" Broke my heart.

Both Hub and I had to work yesterday, and it was difficult to leave her. The Hub milked her a bit when he got home. When I got home around 10 pm, she was outside, bleating, complaining, crying—not sure what she was saying other than she was sad. Not much we can do. She didn't settle down until around midnight. The Hub milked her a bit more this morning and said that Beatrice's kid was milking off Lucille. I am sure that gave her some comfort, but not sure that Beatrice will be happy with that.

Beatrice is the brown mama in these 2 photos from yesterday. While all of this was going on with her mama, Lucille, she found some time to sit in the sun with her boy kid. They look so peaceful together, and amazingly identical.

And the last pic is of the 2 boys in the house who also found a moment of peace together. Normally they are wrestling, or barking, or Cyrus is worrying about the ducks or the deer and telling me all about it—but for this short bit, they took a rest together on the dog bed. Unusual that they are that close together, even more unusual that they actually use the dog bed instead of the couch, chair, futon, or nice warm radiant heat on the floors.

Peaceful moments of any kind are welcome here.