Hindel Kidz 26: Oops!
Hindel Kidz 26
Oops!
After what happened with Ruby, Jack was one goat short for the fair this year. Sven e-mailed Shelly to see if she could line up a baby girl goat for Jack. Even though Shelly had six goats expecting babies in March, she still had people from last year who were still waiting for baby goats. It was unlikely she would have one for Jack right away. The baby goat would have been for Savannah to show because Lainie turned two in March and would have needed to have a baby.
If Lainie, Joy or Jane had babies they wouldn’t have them until June and July and then it would be to late to sign them up.
Jack wasn’t sure how many goats were actually going to have babies. At first, he thought there were seven. So far only two of them he knew were going to have babies for sure. Ruby of course and Carolyn. Carolyn would jump and kick if someone tried to feel her sides. Her due date was February 28th.
With every passing day, Carolyn still wasn’t showing any signs. And with each passing day, Grace was feeling a little less hopeful about the baby being okay. She had always tried to be so hopeful and had been let down when the babies weren’t okay. She didn’t want to be let down again.
On March 11th, day 156, Jack was thinking about taking Carolyn to the vet for an ultrasound and possible C-section. The longer the baby was inside the mother the bigger it would get. That had been part of Ruby’s problem. Jack called Shelly and talked to her. Taking Carolyn to the vet might not be a bad idea.
When Jack went back to the pen, Carolyn was starting to show signs. She was starting to make small noises to her sides. She was talking baby talk to her baby. She must have known Jack was thinking about taking her to the vet if she didn’t do anything. Maybe she just was waiting to have her baby on a nice day weather wise. It was 69 degrees, the warmest day so far this year. Jack decided to wait a while and see what happened.
When Grace, Sven and Grace’s mother, Rhonda, went up, Grace could tell Carolyn was breathing heavy and she was pawing the ground to make a little nest.
“Does that mean she is going to have her baby soon?” asked Rhonda. She had never been around goats before.
“It could take up to three days,” Jack replied. “Just have to see what goes.” Grace didn’t think Jack would wait three days before taking Carolyn to the vet.
Sven’s phone rang at 7:40am the next morning, March 12th. It was Jack and he wanted to know if Sven could help him load Carolyn in the truck and help take her to the vet. She had started to push and then she would stop for a while. Jack said he could feel the two legs, but couldn’t find the head. Shelly had told him if her goats don’t progress after ten or fifteen minutes then she usually tried to pull the babies out. This was news to Jack. He doesn’t want to help the goats unless he absolutely has to. Since Carolyn was twelve days past her due date, Jack didn’t want to take any chances.
“Is it because he doesn’t want Carolyn to go through all the stress Ruby did?” Grace asked. “Do you think there is a chance the baby could survive?”
Sven didn’t know. Grace really wanted to go to the vet with them, but she had to stay and wait for the furnace repairman.
After examining Carolyn, the vet decided to do a C-section. Jack and Sven left for a while to go have breakfast and run a few errands. The vet said it would take around an hour.
When they came back, the vet came out and said, “We have a baby.”
He took Jack and Sven back to the operating room. There were people sitting on the floor petting Carolyn and a newborn baby goat. Jack, Sven and even the vet had thought for sure the baby would have been dead.
The vet said, “It was very near dead. If you had waited any longer, it wouldn’t have survived. Also if Carolyn would have had twins then she would have been able to have them no problem.”
“It sure is a feisty little thing,” the technician said.
“So it’s a boy,” Jack replied. Boy goats are usually feistier than the girl goats.
“No,” the technician answered. “It’s a little girl. I am the one who worked on her and helped her live. I have never seen a baby goat before.” She was tickled to death.
As soon as Sven walked through the door, Grace ambushed him.
“Well, what happened?”
“If Carolyn had it, it would have been a girl,” Sven replied.
“Then it didn’t make it,” Grace sighed. She already had it in her mind the baby wasn’t okay. “But Carolyn is okay?”
“She was walking.”
Sven, Rhonda and Grace stopped by Jack’s on their way into town. Rhonda had decided to get a four wheeler so Sven could drag logs, plow snow and do yard work over at her place.
“It would be nice if you went out to see Carolyn,” Sven told Grace.
“I want to see her, too,” Rhonda replied.
Jack was standing in the pen. Carolyn’s stitches didn’t look as painful as Ruby’s had. Then Grace saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Jack reached down and picked up a baby goat and handed it to Grace. She was speechless. The baby screamed so Grace cuddled her close and patted her until she quieted down and almost fell asleep.
“But I thought…” Grace started to say.
“All I said was if Carolyn had it herself without any help then it would have been a girl,” Sven said. “I never said if it survived or not.” Sven had a knack for leaving out vital bits of information. He loved to mess with Grace’s mind.
Grace’s heart flooded with relief. She was also happy for Jack. She knew he really wanted a little girl goat. It might help soften the blow of loosing Ruby.
“Maybe we should call her Lucky,” Jack said.
Grace had already named one of Porsche’s triplets Lucki, but she had been sold. Grace had considered the name Stormy because it was supposed to rain. But she suggested Miracle instead. Or Angel after Ruby.
“What about calling her Precious Diamond?” Sven asked. It was of great price in which the baby was born. Grace and Rhonda both liked this name very much. But it would be up to Jack. It was pretty unlikely he would sell her. She was so adorable. She was dark gray with a big white spot on the top of her head and white ears. Her little tail wagged almost nonstop.
However, Carolyn rejected her and refused to care for her. She didn’t even know she had a baby. She was still a little groggy from the medication. She acted like she was still having pains and breathing heavy. Grace thought she might hyperventilate. Carolyn didn’t fight her baby, but she didn’t acknowledge her either. Even though the baby seemed to know who her mommy was. Jack got Carolyn up in the head gate and milked her. He used that milk to feed the baby. He was going to feed her every two hours. He used a syringe to squirt milk into the baby’s mouth. She screamed a couple of times, but it looked like she was getting some.
“How terrible to be rejected by your own mother,” Rhonda said. They tried to put the baby close to Carolyn, but Carolyn would just get up and walk away.
“We will love the baby enough to make up for it,” Grace said. She was so attached to the baby already.
When Grace held her again, she nibbled on Grace’s collar and sucked on her fingers a little bit. Later she came over and let Grace pet her through the gate. Grace wanted to share the wonderful news with someone. She told Patty even though it didn’t really matter to her.
Later that night Carolyn finally let her baby eat. And by morning, her maternal instincts had taken over. She was licking and nudging her baby. She would also bellow when someone would hold the baby and wouldn’t stop until they put the baby down.
Carolyn had her baby on day 157. And this baby will also be registered. Pearl is a biological grandma. This will be Carolyn’s only baby. Jack will not let her have anymore. This was Ben’s first baby also. Hey one is better then none. Now there are four registered Hindel Kidz goats.
What fun Grace and Rhonda would have this summer. Getting a baby goat and a four- wheeler both in one day. Can’t get much better than that.
As it turned out, they all had been told a fib. The baby girl was actually a baby boy. Everyone at the vet’s office had said it was a girl so Jack and Sven didn’t think any different. They figured the vet would know. The next morning, the little baby was hopping around. When Sven held it for the first time, he thought something was different. He asked Jack to come out and check. After Jack looked the baby over, he and Sven looked at each other and laughed.
“The vet must have been absent on the day of health class when they taught you how to tell the difference between boys and girls,” Sven said.
Obviously a boy would not want to be called Precious Diamond or Angel. Jack said, “I will probably just call him G.I. Joe since he is a fighter. He had to fight for his life.”
Later on Jack was considering some other names for him. One was Sue after Johnny Cash’s song A Boy Named Sue. Grace thought it made perfect sense. Then one day Grace asked if Jack had decided on a name yet. She wanted to be able to call the baby something definite instead of either or.
“Jack,” he replied.
He didn’t name the baby after himself. It was because the baby liked to jump on top and inside the wooden crate, hence the name Jack In The Box. He would also use the other goats as a springboard or a bridge to get where he wanted to go.
Savannah would probably throw a tantrum since she would have to show Jack In The Box as a wither at the fair. Jack doesn’t want any more boy goats who are able to have babies. Poor little Jack In The Box was going to have an identity crisis. For the first two days of his life he had been called a girl.
By the time Jack In The Box was a week old he was hopping and jumping all over the yard. He jumped on Pearl’s back and even chased her around the side of the house. Grace wondered if Pearl knew he was her grandson. And by the end of March, he was chewing just like any normal baby goat. He would chew on Grace’s fingers, sweatshirt and hair while she was holding him. He was becoming more independent. Carolyn was learning what being a mother was all about…chasing after her kid.
