Okay so I introduced Charlotte and Nell on this blog, but then they didn’t work out. They were born last November and, because of the cold winter, the owners did not go out to handle them. The lack of contact with people made them quite feral, at best, uninterested in humans and, in actuality, afraid of humans. They were constantly looking for ways to get away and escape. Goats are smart, or at least clever, and they found ways – EVERY DAY – to escape the pasture. Then they were so hard to herd back in. At any rate, we gave them back to the original owners, wishing them a good life.
Enter Jasmine, Jade, and Jessica…
Jasmine is the nursing mom and Jade and Jessica are her babies. The twin girls were five days old when we got them, and now they are about a month old. We were going to rename them, but Danielle told her niece, Jessica, that we had a goat with her name, so we were stuck..and we’ve come to know them as Jasmine, Jade, and Jessica. They come from a line of J names. Aunts are Janice Joplin, Jonie (Mitchell), etc…When we breed them, we will have, of course, Joan and Josette, Jay (Mascis), Jennifer (Drinker), Jalopy, Jerry, Jupiter, Jinny, Juniper…
Jasmine, the mom, is a year old. She was held as a baby by her owners, Danny Botkin and his wife, Divya. She is so gentle, and she feels more secure when people are around than when she is alone. Jade and Jessica are complete cuddle-buns. As you can see. We got them for friendship as well as for milk and pasture management. They like to eat invasives like poison ivy and bittersweet, leaving the grass for the horses. They have not tried to get out once as they feel more secure around their stall.
Several mornings a week, we go to Atkin’s Market in North Amherst to get their gone-by vegies for the goats. They love all of it except cucumbers, parsnips, and chard.