Farm Fresh Blog

Tuesday, April 05 2016

Life is full of little mysteries. This little goat is one of them. Her life thus far is surely the stuff of a Disney movie.

Last week I got a call from a friend asking if we could take in a little goat that had been found wandering on a 2000 acre ranch. There are no goats on this ranch. This little girl was found with a herd of axis deer. The rancher watched her for hours, waiting for a mother to appear, but no mother ever came. She bedded down with the axis deer. Eventually, he took the baby and she ended up with a relative as a bottle baby in a subdivision for two weeks. She had a loving family, but they were no set up for goats and so they reluctantly sought out a home for little Patty, so she now lives with us. Who knows how Patty ended up wandering with Axis deer. There are Angora goats on neighboring ranches but they are not close. We will probably never know exactly what Patty is, or where she came from, or what happened to her mother, but that's okay. We'll give her a loving home where her Subdivision Family can visit her.

At our house Patty lives in a dog crate in the stall with Archer and his mother.

Archer is a Lacey/Arrow cross:

Soon Archer and Patty will have more new friends because at 6:30 am more babies were born.

These kids are a Feather/Jethro cross.

Large, lanky buckling

Doeling with a Peacock Feather marking on her side

In a few weeks babies will be ping-ponging all over the pasture, and the little foundling will be as happy as a mountain goat, bouncing along with them. This little kid surely has a backstory that is the makings of a Disney movie, but we'll never know what it is.

Posted by: forensicfarmgirl AT 11:56 am | Permalink | 6 Comments | Email

Comments:

If I were guessing I would say that Patty was kidnapped and then the people that took her discovered how hard it was to have her and dumped her .... but strange she took up with the deer. Smart little girl. Susan

Posted by Susan on 04/05/2016 - 01:23 PM

The family I got her from made the very, very painful decision to do what was best for her and put Patty in a home where she could be with other goats. A lot of tears went into their decision. If it had been just a matter of too much trouble they would have kept her. The man who picked her up was aware of the behavior of deer. He really didn't want to assume the responsibility for her but felt he had to take her for her own safety.

Posted by Forensicfarmgirl on 04/05/2016 - 01:40 PM

Sorry.... I did not mean to imply that the people who turned her over to a good home were the kidnappers ... nor of course the rancher that found her. I suspect a third party unknown took her and then dumped her - happens with lots of other critters too as you well know.

Posted by Susan on 04/05/2016 - 03:25 PM

Ahhhh... Good point. That might explain how she survived in those conditions. I'm amazed that the deer took her in. She is a little Mowgli baby, a child of the forest. :)

Posted by Forensicfarmgirl on 04/05/2016 - 03:56 PM

Patty is so cute! Is she as big as your goats?

Posted by Patty on 04/05/2016 - 07:44 PM

The newborn Nubians are almost as tall as she is, but she is much thicker. She is built like a stout meat goat.

Posted by Forensicfarmgirl on 04/05/2016 - 10:07 PM