Hindel Kidz 30: Lainie's Loss
Hindel Kidz 30
Lainie's Loss
Jack said Chloe had stopped eating. It sounded like she was showing the same signs Lizzie did when she had gotten sick. Even though Grace liked Chloe all right, she wasn’t as attached to her as she had been to Lizzie. Lizzie had been a sweetheart. Chloe was timid and skittish. Grace was able to pet her head, ears and neck, but with a little bit of coaxing. Chloe also ate out of the feed scoop, but never out of Grace’s hand.
On January 31st, Jack called down to see if Sven was home from work yet. Since he wasn’t, Jack just asked Grace to have Sven come up when he did get home. Jack needed his help. He had sounded anxious on the phone and Grace wondered what Jack needed. Her first thought was one of the goats was having her baby and Jack needed to go to the vet. He often asked Sven to help load the goats when he had to take them somewhere. Then she thought maybe it had something to do with Chloe.
Fifteen minutes later, Jack called back and told Grace he didn’t need Sven help anymore. Even though when Sven got home, he and Grace went up to see what Jack had needed. Chloe had passed away and Jack had wanted Sven to help him load her on the trailer. Grace didn’t know if Jack had to put her down or whether she had died on her own. Jack had always said after Chloe died no more deer. Grace fondest memory of Chloe was holding her the whole way home when they had gone to pick her up. She was also two years old. Just like Lizzie.
CHLOE
May 2008-Jan.31, 2011
Also back in January, Jack said if any of the goats had babies it wouldn’t be for another eight weeks. That meant the babies would be born sometime in March. Becca and Joy had been placed with Elmer and Libby, Lainie, Carolyn and Jane had been placed with Pete. Joy couldn’t have babies with Pete because he was her son.
On the first of March, Grace asked Jack which goat was going to have her baby first.
“Whichever one has it first,” Jack replied. That didn’t tell Grace anything. He said he had placed three of the females with one of the males and then walked away. So he didn’t know when the babies would be born. The only thing he knew for sure was that Jane was not going to have one. He said if everything went right then five of the goats were going to have babies.
When Sven had to go up to help Jack trim his apple tree, Grace and Rhonda went along to see the goats. Grace could tell Joy and Carolyn were definitely going to have babies. They were the biggest so Grace figured they would be the first to have their babies. She thought Joy might have twins again. Elmer was known for having multiple babies. Sven said he thought Becca would have her baby first. Grace felt their sides and all of them still felt soft except for Lainie. And Clark actually came to Grace and let her pet him more than she ever had before.
Jack and Charlotte were both hoping for baby girls this time since last year all the goats had boys. The longer time went on Grace was hoping for St. Patrick’s Day. If the baby was a girl then Grace would have called her Patty, Emerald or Clover. Irish could have worked, too. If it was a boy then she would have named him Shamrock
On March 11th, they noticed Jack had set up the other television.
“So is it time for Goat TV?” asked Sven.
Grace thought it meant Joy or Carolyn was going to have their baby soon. As it turned out, Grace was right and wrong. One of the goats was going to have their baby, but it wasn’t Joy or Carolyn.
On March 15th, Grace was supposed to call Jack and give him an update on Rhonda who had had surgery and was still in the hospital. Grace called around 9:30am. No answer. Maybe Jack was out feeding. She tried again. Maybe he had gone to get the newspaper. Grace tried a third time. Maybe he had gone down to the meat house. Jack used to go down every day, but hadn’t for a long time. Finally, she thought maybe one of the goats was having their baby and Jack was out in the building. She tried one more time around noon. This time Jack answered. She told him Rhonda had thrown a curve ball and they weren’t sure when she would be coming home.
“Well, Lainie threw me a curve ball this morning,” Jack replied. “I walked out to the building and she was trying to have a baby.”
So he had loaded her up in the truck and took her to the vet for a C-section. Grace had a small glimmer of hope that there would be a baby goat next time she went up. But the vet ended up having to cut the baby out. So the baby didn’t make it. Grace was real sad and she knew Rhonda would be sad, too. It was too bad since March 15th was also Grace’s grandpa’s birthday. He would have thought it was neat to have a goat born on his birthday.
This was Lainie and Pete’s first baby.
