Yesterday I promised to explain how we brought home the new babies. You see, we do have a truck, but it is twenty years old, in need of some TLC, and really is only meant to be used for plowing our driveway. We do use it to pick up lumber, and other over-sized items, but those are local trips, and involve driving 10 miles or so, at most. The baby goats were quite a bit further away than that – and we do not have a cap for the bed of our truck, so they’d have to ride in a large dog cage all the way back. We decided the truck was not a viable option.
So, we devised another plan – bringing them home in our car, but trying to minimize the inevitable mess that would be made. So, we lined the trunk with blankets, folded down one of the back seats, and used a plastic tote container lid to block access to the backseat, leaving a gap at the top to allow airflow and visibility.
The girls were a bit bewildered at first, but I think that would have been true under any circumstances – they were being taken from the only home they had known up until that point. But after we got on the road, they settled right down and I was able to remove the container lid blockade and peek in on them.
Lovie watched the camera with interest:
Ginger wondered what the rest of the car was like:
MaryAnn and Lovie demonstrate how they are just small enough to fit in the space while standing up. (They laid down most of the ride; this was taken when we stopped for a human potty break.)
When we got home, Lovie and MaryAnn were all too happy to get out, stretch their legs, and check out their new barn. Ginger, on the other hand, immediately ran under our car and laid down in the mud. Ugh! But I coaxed her out and she soon joined the rest of the herd. Here they are checking out their “backyard.”
I did have some goat berries (their turds are little bouncy balls) and a bit of mud to clean out of the trunk, but that was minimized by the blankets. The bigger mess came from our dog Loki jumping inside of the car with muddy paws! (He was so excited about the new goats; I believe he thought there might be more still inside of the car.) But that, too, is now cleaned up.
Everyone is doing quite well – there is definitely still a “clique” situation in that our Heidi and Gidget are usually together, and the “castaway girls” stick with one another most of the time, but we are noticing them socializing with each other more every day. They will definitely have something to commiserate with one another about soon, as we will be giving them their first de-worming shots this week. But that’s another post for another day.
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