Hindel Kidz 22: Joy's Boys
Hindel Kidz 22
Joy’s Boys
Sven and Grace had talked about letting Joy have a baby for a while. At first they weren’t sure whether she was too small. She had a small head, but a longer body. Ann down at Stoneybrook Acres said, “That helps when they have babies.”
As soon as they told Jack they had decided to let Joy have a baby, Jack had her over with Elmer the very next day. For three and a half years, whenever Joy was in love, she would back up to the gate and wag her tail in Elmer’s face driving him crazy.
“ You little hussy. You are such a tease,” Nibby thought.
“Elmer chased Joy the whole time she was over there. I finally had to go over and tell Elmer that was enough and bring her back over to the other side,” Jack said.
“I finally got my revenge,” Elmer thought.
The next time Jack put Joy over with Elmer he left her over there. After he found out Ruby was going to have babies he said, “Joy is expecting a baby, too.”
For a while Grace wasn’t so sure even though they hadn’t noticed Joy going back into love. Usually they could tell when she was in love because she would walk around complaining and want to go over to see Elmer. Grace felt her sides and they still felt soft. When Joy started to get milk, Grace knew for sure even though Joy still didn’t look very large. It looked like one of her sides was rounder than the other.
“I think she is going to have a single,” Grace said.
“The book says Joy is going to have a girl,” Jack said.
Since the baby would be born in July, Grace couldn’t name it after the July birthstone since it was a ruby. And she couldn’t name one Lucki since she had already used that name a couple years ago. If it did turn out to be a girl, then Grace thought about naming it Hope or Faith since Joy would be it’s mother. If she had a boy, Grace thought about naming it Pride. Then they would have Pride and Joy. Of course her given name was Almond Joy so maybe they could name the baby after a candy bar.
Grace hoped and prayed the baby would be all right. She wanted all the babies to be okay, but Joy’s would be a special one since she was Grace and Sven’s own goat. She really wanted Joy to get the chance to be a mother.
If the baby was okay Sven said, “Maybe we should name it Miracle.”
“It would only be fitting,” Jack replied.
Jack had put some medicine in their water just in case one or more of the goats had an infection. He also gave Joy her two booster shots.
On July 4th, Jack said, “It could be another week or ten days before Joy has her baby.”
If it were true, then Joy could have her baby on July 14th, Bastille Day. Bastille Day is the Independence Day for France. It just also happened to be Grace’s daddy’s birthday. If Joy had her baby on his birthday he would probably think it was neat. Whenever Grace talked to him, he always asked, “How are the goats?”
Jack put Joy over in the side pen instead of the birthing pen. If she had her baby early he wouldn’t have to worry about the other goats or having to separate her every night. Joy stopped eating some of the pellets, but it was only because she wanted molasses.
On July 15th Jack said he thought Joy was beginning to show the very first sign she was going to have her baby in a few days. She had already made three little nests and scratchings on the ground. He checked on her once before going to bed and then again at 4:00am. But so far nothing had happened. He put Joy back with the other goats for the time being.
Grace was still trying to be hopeful, but it was getting harder after what happened with Ruby and Pearl. Then Jack mentioned Joy was something like seven days past her due date and it was a sign her baby might be not be okay. Boy, did he have a way of bursting Grace’s hopeful bubble. She felt her hopefulness leak out of her like water in a paper bag. She still had a little hopelessness in the very back of her mind, but she tried not to let it show. She couldn’t help the way she felt.
When Sven and Grace went up to help feed on July 21st, they noticed Joy wasn’t in the pen with the rest of the goats. Grace went out in the back to see if she was out there. When she didn’t see her, right away she thought, “Maybe Joy’s having her baby.”
She went over to the little side pen. As she got closer she heard voices. Jack hadn’t been in the building or sitting out in the yard. Jess and her mother’s car had also been parked in the front of the house. Grace saw Jack, Jess and her mother looking in the side pen. Much to her relief, Grace saw two little baby goats with Joy. She had twins! Grace was beginning to wonder if Joy was going to have twins because she looked like she had a lot of milk. When goats have their first baby, they have milk a lot earlier than goats that have had babies before. The mother will also have more milk if she has two boys instead of one girl.
The babies were so tiny and probably didn’t even weigh one pound. There were no words to describe how happy Grace was. Both babies were gray and white. One had a bigger white spot on the top of its head than the other. Joy had two boys. Jack had trusted the book and he had been wrong again. He wanted her to have girls. All though he was happy to have anything that was okay. They had been born around 3:45pm so they were only about fifteen minutes old. Jack told Sven he had to help the first baby. If he hadn’t then it probably wouldn’t have been okay. It had come out nose first.
“Now, you have to try and get them to eat,” Jack told Grace.
“I’m am so happy for you, Joy. You’re a mommy,” Grace congratulated her.
She picked up one baby and placed it underneath Joy a couple of times, but Joy kept blocking it with her foot. She kept walking around and wouldn’t stand still. She was constantly talking to them and licking them. Grace was glad both babies were standing and walking around and Joy was also standing up.
It looked to Grace like both babies were trying to eat, but didn’t know where to go. They were both up toward Joy’s face. Finally, one of them found the right place and started to eat. It did this around three or four times before Joy stood still for more than a minute or two. The second one still hadn’t eaten. She hoped the babies would eat and Joy would be a good mother. At 5:30pm Sven told Grace to get out of the pen and leave them alone for a while so Joy could get used to the idea of having twins and all three could bond.
“I am a grandma!” Grace joyfully exclaimed.“ And I am only twenty eight.“
If goat years were anything like dog years then Joy and Grace would be the same age. Joy would be turning four years old in August. Grace didn’t care if they were boys. She didn’t care if they were sold. She didn’t care she hadn’t been able to be there when they were born. She didn’t care what their names turned out to be. As long as they were okay that’s all she cared about. See, it does pay to be hopeful.
Since Joy had twins, Grace had to come up with two names instead of just one. She was considering the names Miracle and Blessing. It had been a miracle and a blessing they both had been okay. They were truly miracle babies. She also thought it would be cute and funny to call them Gomer and Goober from two of the characters on The Andy Griffith Show.
Since Grace considered them to be her grandchildren, that would make them her parents’ great-grandchildren. They said to name them Neil and Buzz after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren the first two men on the moon. July 20th had been the 40th anniversary of landing on the moon and Grace’s daddy worked for NASA.
Sven and Grace also thought about Brownie and Fudge since the babies turned out to be dark brown instead of gray. Jack said he wasn’t going to name them, but he was calling them This and That. He was going let whoever bought them name them. If they were going to have names before that then it would be up to Grace to name them. She was leaning more toward calling one Miracle. It was Sven who came up with the names. He and Grace started calling them M and M. It would go along with the theme of Almond Joy.
Later on Jack mentioned maybe calling them Tom and Jerry or Mickey and Donald since they both were turning out to be characters. Their names changed every day. Finally, Jack decided. Meet Pete and Peanut. He had wanted to call one Peanut from the very first day.
Jack said right from the start, he was going to sell them. Mainly because they were boys. Jess didn’t want him to.
“You should keep the babies,” she said.
“Do you remember what it was like when Bree moved back in with you?” Jack asked.
“It was crowded,” Jess replied.
“I don‘t want it to get too crowded.”
He already had sixteen permanent residences, not to mention the deer, dog, ducks and cats. He told Sven to go ahead and advertise Pete and Peanut on the Internet even though they wouldn’t be ready to leave yet. At least Grace would have three or four months to hold, pet and play with them. She only had so much time to spend with them; she wanted to make the most of it. She was so attached to them already.
By the second day, the other one had started trying to eat. Also Joy and her two boys were out in the yard. Molly came running around the house at 90 miles an hour. She loved going up there to play. Joy charged her full speed and chased her out around the tree. She charged her around three more times even when Molly wasn’t anywhere near the babies. One time, Joy even chased Molly around the side of the house. Jack, Sven and Grace cracked up laughing. Joy had turned out to be a very protective mommy. Poor Molly. She sat shaking in Sven’s lap the rest of the time. When he tried to set her back on the ground she pushed even closer to him and put her head over his shoulder. A goat had never run at her before. Jack said she feared for her life now.
Any time after that, all Joy had to do was stand in the doorway and Molly was up in Sven’s lap like a flash. If Sven set her back on the ground, she would go over and jump up in Grace’s lap. Molly didn’t want to be on the same planet as Joy. She did get close enough to smell one of the babies before Joy charged her again. This time Molly yelped and showed her teeth. She was going to defend herself if need be. However, Joy had never come in contact with Molly. She was just being a bully and wanted to scare her. Well, she succeeded.
By the time Pete and Peanut were three weeks old, you would have never known they were less then a pound when they were born. They were growing like weeds and starting to nibble, chew and eat leaves. Pete had been the smallest when they were born was now bigger then his brother. Jack didn’t worry about him not being okay any more.
The mother cat also has five kittens on July 25th. Two yellow, two calicos and one black. It was the first time Grace had been there for and seen a kitty birth. It was her second set of kittens that year. Two of them turned out not to be okay. Two others were given away. That only left one calico one.
