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The Eclectic Pen - The story of Christmas the goat

By: JOYCE W. (luvthemgoats)   + 6 more  
Date Submitted: 5/5/2007
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs » Memoirs
Words: 638
Rating:

My husband Rusty came in the front door one cold snowy day , in his arms a small trembling bundle crying pitifuly for her dead nanny. Big brown eyes peeked out at me from the coat he had wrapped her in and my heart was lost. As near to death as she was there was the promise in her eyes of unconditional love to any one willing to love her back. Her birth had been a hard one, friends of ours raised goats and we were just getting our herd started. They had went out on Christmas morning to check their herd and had found a pregnant nanny dead, they could see the kids moving around inside of her and made a quick decision to do an at home cecerian section. They delivered to kids one billy one nanny the billy died soon after and the little nanny lived. They kept her for a few days and decided they couldnt manage all the feedings she needed plus all the other stuff they needed to do everyday. So that is how we ended up with Christmas the nanny. She was really weak and needed a lot of care,we made her a bed and placed it by the wood stove in the house and soon she responded to our love and care and was bounding through the house. When she started jumping on the bed we decided to fix her a stall in one of our out buildings, we still had to take her a bottle several times a day. When the weather started to warm up we let her out to graze for a while every day she was growing by leaps and bounds. She wouldnt graze with the other goats she wanted in the yard, If the door was left open she took that as in invatation to come in, she had her own place on the front porch to lay.Everyday when I came home from work she would run to the car to meet me along with our dogs, when our neighbor Uncle Charlie would walk to the mail box she walked along with him grazing along the way. When we would sit on the porch in the cool of the day she would lay her head on our laps for a petting. When we put her in her stall for the night she would stand there and holler until we took her a bottle and then she would lay down and sleep for the night Then one day in May when she was about 5 months old, we went one evening to put her in her stall for the night and could not find her, all the other goats were grazing peacefully in the field, we could not find Christmas any where, then Rusty walked out the driveway and there she was with two of our neighbors dogs chewing on her. Out of 18 goats the neighbors varmits had killed her. We put her in the back of the truck and took her as proof to show them what thier dogs had done to her. When we got there they had just tied thier dogs up but the had blood all around thier muzzles and still they tried to deny that thier dogs did this until my husband told them he seen the dogs on her lifeless body. These so called neighbors never did try to make this right, although how can money pay for a beloved pet? Still after 5 years we still miss her and think of her often. But this did teach us a good lesson "never let a strange dog get near your livestock and make it out alive" This sounds creul i know but if people arent willing keep thier dogs at home them they do not really want them.

The Eclectic Pen » All Stories by JOYCE W. (luvthemgoats)

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