I made the birth sound so calm and straightforward in my post, but I was absolutely terrified. When the bubble came there was nothing in it and Petunia was screaming like she was going to die. There are supposed to be two little feet inside that bubble. I ripped it open, thinking the feet must be just behind it still in the birth canal. But the birth canal was completely empty. Meanwhile, Petunia is pushing like crazy, screaming her head off in pain, and nothing is coming out. I had to reach far in before I came across a sharp set of teeth, but I couldn’t find any feet to go with it. After fishing around in the depths I recovered one foot and brought it to the outside, but now the head had disappeared! Another foot pushed its way forward, but at this point I couldn’t tell if it belonged to the one I already had. So after starting out with a head and no feet, now I had two feet and no head! At this point I’m beginning to panic and I asked Phil to please start praying and to get one of our “goat mentors” on the phone.

Petunia was a wreck. We hoisted her to her feet because it felt to me like both babies were trying to push their way out at once and I couldn’t get either of them to go back in. Once Petunia was standing, gravity helped pull the kids back down so I had more room to work. Of course, having had both feet out while Petunia was rolling around in the muck, I’m now worried about all that nasty junk going back inside her. But you can’t pull a baby out with its head back, so at least one foot had to go back in (especially since at this point I was afraid I had feet belonging to two different goats).

Phil got the goat mentor on the phone and described to her what was happening. She was very calm and was able to give instructions to Phil who relayed them to me. I eventually found the head turned way back (it was easy to tell what it was because of the long ears), turned it towards me, then felt along down the neck and shoulder to make sure it belonged to the same foot as the one in my hand. Once I was certain, I was able to guide the little fella to the outside world. I didn’t try to find the other leg–Petunia, it turns out, is a very roomy goat and I knew she’d be able to push him out just fine with one leg back.

After that it was pretty easy. The second little guy came head-first. I had to push him back quite a bit because his entire head was hanging out while both legs were still inside. But he was much smaller than the first, and Petunia was so preoccupied with her new baby that she didn’t seem to notice me fussing around with the second one.

Everyone seems happy this morning. Petunia still seems a bit confused what to do with these new acquisitions. She didn’t lick them to nearly the extent that my previous mamas have done and she’s the first goat I’ve seen who wanted nothing to do with eating the afterbirth. The dog ended up getting it, and both babies got a warm bath in the sink last night because they never got thoroughly cleaned by their mama. I toweled them, but they dried so fast in the hot windy weather that both of them turned crusty and Petunia didn’t want to clean it off, so they weren’t fun to pet or hold. Neither one liked the bath, but they both liked the blow dryer. 

After mooning around by herself and pretending she was about to kid for the last several days, Petunia finally decided it was time to do it for real, and we’ve got two precious little bucklings.

This big fella came first and he weighed in at eleven pounds. His head was back and I had to go in and fish him out. It was a bit tense because I had no idea what I was doing and all I could find were two legs and no head. I wasn’t sure the legs even belonged to each other, and since I couldn’t fit my hand in there with both of them anyway, I ended up pushing one leg back in, finding the head that went with the leg I had, and pulling him out by only one.

This little guy came second, head only. I was sitting by Petunia’s head, congratulating her on the first when she gave a couple of big pushes and here comes this face. I had to push him back in so I could find a leg to pull, and then he slid out easily. He weighed nine pounds. Phil was thinking since we’ve got 9/11 babies we could name them Al and Qaeda, but I told him that probably won’t go over well with anyone.

This fella has Pac-Man’s ears and red coloring.

And this one has Petunia’s ears and gray roaning and the same striking brown-and black legs of Petunia’s father.

What a beautiful family!

Phil’s got his arms full!

Well, it’s nearly midnight and still no sign of babies. Petunia’s been teasing us all day. She woke up this morning with an enormous udder that she can hardly walk around. I told Phil she looks like those severely uddered-up goats at Nationals. Her ligaments have been gone since day before yesterday. She hangs around the pen pawing, circling, laying down with her head stretched out, then pacing around like she’s ready to go into labor any moment. Then, like someone flipped a switch, she goes straight back to eating and chewing her cud like she’s happy hold out for a few more days if necessary.

Finn loves his big sissy and tries to play with her a lot. She hasn’t really been in the mood to play recently, but she did butt heads with him for a few short sessions today. I never realized a baby could be so wholeheartedly embraced by an entire herd! Finn has wormed his way into everyone’s affections, and Pac-Man has fully adopted Finn as his own.

Finn climbed up to see if he could get in to meet the tin porch goats. Then he discovered the joys of balancing along the top of this rock wall. I’ll have to post some video tomorrow if I get a chance.

Our friends Hank and Deb came over to play games last week and Deb and Finn became good friends in a very short time. 

Today we found out why our internet went down yesterday and wouldn’t come back no matter what Phil did to it. We jiggled the wires and got it back, but we’ve got a service call in to the phone company to come fix it properly. Naughty goats!

Pac-Man does funny things.

He’s the king of lounging in dust piles.

Oftentimes he sits up and tumps over.

Then he makes like a horse…

And over he goes!

Finn is growing like a weed and already these photos from last week look dated. It won’t be long before we won’t be able to do this any more!

Petunia has been fairly intrigued by her little brother and is more tolerant of him than the other grown-ups. They started playing recently, and this morning they were butting heads. Petunia even tried standing on her hind legs, which looked really funny because she’s so huge right now!

“Mama, play with me!”

“Play with me now!”

“Why are grown-ups so boring?”

Petunia is due this week, and I’m pretty sure she’s got twins. I’ve felt a baby on the right and a baby on the left at the same time. I suppose it could be one big stretch limo of a baby, but I certainly hope not! It/they are lively little critters too! I love feeling them kick after the heartbreak with Nubbin’s kids. I’m probably going to be a bit of a nervous wreck until these babies are safely delivered!

Petunia was looking tired and depressed earlier this week, so I started giving her an extra ration of grain by herself in the mornings along with some Gatorade powder and she seems to have perked up quite a bit. She’s also got a stubborn cough that she contracted a couple of weeks ago. Nubbin was coughing first but she got over it as soon as she lost her pregnancy. I wonder if Petunia has the same thing and is also having a hard time fighting it while pregnant.

May 29th was me and Phil’s 15th wedding anniversary. How time does fly when you’re having fun! Phil bought me flowers and made this lovely arrangement with stuffed goats, a couple of crazy creatures holding hands front and center, and “15 Years of Goatastic Good Times” typed up for me to read. He’d written down something that had happened in each of the fifteen years we’ve been together, with an emphasis on goats.

Last week I went to haul water and Pac-Man came with me. I want him to get accustomed to riding in the bed of a truck without the cage on it, and I really want him to get comfortable leaving the other goats. I want him to enjoy being by himself with people and having adventures like Cuzco does. I doubt any goat we own from now on is going to love getting out by himself the way Cuzco does because all of them will be raised with other goats, but I’d like him to at least get used to the idea and not be terrified, loud, or unhappy.

He did pretty good besides occasionally climbing on the side when we were stopped. I don’t think this goat will ever try to jump out. He’s not terribly athletic and he knows it, so it makes him a bit of a coward when it comes to heights and jumping. This means he’ll likely never be a great companion on rough or technical hikes, but on the flip side, we’ll never have to rescue him off a cliff face like we did with Nibbles.