Smokey Mountain Breakdown

I haven’t been talking much about Rose Goat’s pregnancy. We are indeed expecting, but I’m not entirely sure it is going to be a happy event. She’s the only one who got bred out of the girls and is the one who least needed to be. She was the runt of last year’s kiddings. She’s still very small for a goat. Short and squat like her mother, Blinkin’, she may be okay—maybe not.

The only reason she is still here is because she disappeared when the goat rapture happened. Since no one else got bred, I sort of assumed Rose Goat wouldn’t be as well. As I've watched her udder fill out, I've continued to think maybe she wasn't bred.

Anyway, it’s getting near time. I’ve got her tied up to the porch. She made a nest in a weird place up on the hill and was “talking” to her babies. They make this funny little whickering noise at their stomachs. I also saw her have a contraction. Of course, her mother led us on like that for six weeks.

But I can feel them. I think there are two—probably an enormous buckling and a small doeling. I pushed against the right side of her belly and somebody pushed back. That’s such a weird feeling.

Anyway, she’s settled herself on the porch for now. Let’s hope she lives through it. That’s a big head or something I’m feeling in there.

I will say that her goat lady parts are enormously large and out of scale for a goat her size. So, maybe she won’t have a bad time of it.