It's a boy, It's a girl?! Or is it?

Lilly (the goat) was the last to due to kid this year. We bred four for the first time. We've usually bred 1 or 2 goats each year. Every. Single. Kidding has been adventurous.

 Rachel

First Rachel kidded a week early with 2 doelings. First was an all white beauty we named Ivory, because her all brown "sister" was born dead. Died about 3 weeks before she was born, by the looks of her.

Look at that face?! What a goof! 

This is my wonderful Angel.

Then Angel had QUADS! Our first time having more than twins. The babies were born HUGE. Ranging from 8lbs to almost 13lbs! AT BIRTH with FOUR of them. My friend April had to come help assist in pulling three of the four. Two of the kids were breech. After the third one was born April tells me, "congrats you have triplets." Then Elaine (my daughter) says, "mom there is something else coming out." Tada, QUADS.

The quads in back and Ivory photo bombing in the front.

Then comes Anna's turn. Dear sweet Anna. She is actually the ornery goat here. Poor girl decided to be my very first middle of the night kidding. She started pushing around 1am, by 4am still no babies. So I "phone a friend", April of course. Thankfully she must like me, or maybe it's the goats... But either way she decided to come over and help. Finally around 7 or 8 am a Buck kid was out, but dead. he was just too big for her and when his shoulders got in the birth canal he suffocated. Being born literally killed him. He was alive up until that point. :(  Then his sister was born alive, but with a bent leg. Extra vitamins and she's just fine. Bent Leg is a tight tendon issue that is often caused by needing Vit. A.  Her name is Lucky.

Surprisingly, I don't have any pictures of Lucky.

Now for the last goat, Lilly. Lilly was due Sunday May 19th. When I did chores that night there was no signs of labor. I went happily to bed. Woke up and went out to do chores at 7:30 am and found she had uneventfully given birth to 2 kids! They were all cleaned up and mostly dry. AND up and walking.

I had somewhere to be somewhere by 9am. Having 2 new baby goats to bottle feed and 1 more goat to milk I was in a rush. 

As I was getting the newly born babies out of the big goat pen I checked their sex.

One male. One female. 

I called April right away to tell her the good news that we did not need her assistance and that my doe/buck kid ratio was 4 to 4. Or so I thought... I fed them at 1pm and called my friend Kathy and talked to her for about 10 minutes about how happy I was with the male goat. I've been thinking of adding a pure Saanen Buck to the heard, but would rather not pay the price, nor do we have room to keep a buck. They run $150 and on up. So, it wouldn't be a breed and eat purchase. I don't want to pay that much money for Sperm and meat, if you know what I mean. 
"The little boy is mostly white with a tinge of cream on his head," I tell her, "if only he had waddles like his sister then it would be thee perfect male goat. I won't be buying one this year, I can use him for breeding! God is soo good!" 

Then I fed them again at 5pm and checked under the males tail, HE was a GIRL! I had TWO does! I phoned April and told her I was wrong, I had 2 girls! .....  

Or did I? I

I took my friend Christina out to dinner with our husbands for her birthday as a surprise. It was our VERY first time that ALL four of us went out to dinner together in 4 or 5 years of friendship. We are talking BEST friends, friendship. She has a special needs child and we are her baby sitter you see. So the four of us going out was just not possible.  Well my son, Corey, is finally old enough and able to handle the babysitting for her boys. HOORAY... and it went super well, so we will be doing it again.

Anyway back the goats.

When I got home around 9pm I went out to do chores. Elaine and Corey went with me, so this time I have witnesses.

When talking to April again at 1pm she said, "well do the girls have testicles?" I laughed and said, "I thought one did, but apparently not. When I checked him again, he was a girl." 

Once called Lasagna, SHE is now named ROSE!

So, I thought I better check this again. As sometimes they do have testicles AND girl parts is what April told me.

Well the girl I thought was a boy was a full fledged girl, nothing funny happening. Then on a whim I decided I would check for testicles on her sister, you know the one with waddles? Oh how I love waddles. Well the waddled goat had testicles... A penis... and NO vagina!  A BUCK!!! A perfectly WHITE WADDLED BUCK!!!  God is soo good! I got all I wanted in a buck and didn't have to PAY for him!

First named Daffodil, when he "was" a girl for several hours. 

Look at him stretch out all proud of himself!

Now HE shall be called THORN!

Maybe next time I will pay a little more attention to the business end of the goat, even when in a rush.

What a fun story though.