Week One: Ginger's Belly

From top, looking down: Normal belly girth of Ginger.
I don't think that she's even supposed to show until a couple of months before.

My Ginger is Back

On Sunday, I went to retrieve Ginger from her Love Shack in Maryland. And whew! She smells like a buck! However, I have grown to like that smell; I never thought I would, but I do. It just smells like goat - and I love goats. So, it makes sense to me. The first day back, she seemed kinda quiet and confused. I am imagining that she misses her fella, Wind. But, she's back and I'm thrilled that she may be carrying a happy little bundle in her belly.

I envisioned that when Ginger was led into their yard, that the other goats would run up to her and give her goat hugs, and that Ginger would prance around with giddiness at the joy of returning to her family. That didn't happen. At first, they seemed to be blind to each other. Didn't even seem to notice each other's presence. Then after a minute or so, Ginger decided that she needed to reassert her position as Herd Queen, and started to kick some goat butt all over the place. If anyone got near her, she butted them really severely. Not just playing around either. She seemed genuinely pissed. She was downright mean! I felt sorry for Clover, who seemed to get the brunt of the aggression. But Clover stood up for herself and gave Ginger a taste of her own medicine.

Go Clover! Show Ginger that you are not going down without a fight!

Next day, thing were back to normal. No more fighting. Just the normal shoving around of Tulip and Juniper when they get near food that Ginger wants. It's good again.

Estrus Follies

I just lived through another bout of CloverHeat. With Clover, there is no doubt at all that she is in heat. With Ginger, I was never quite sure. This is not the case with Clover! She will continuously bleat her loudest. I usually hear her first thing in the morning, thinking that she has been mortally wounded. She must be dying, yelling like that! She goes into heat about three or four days after Ginger does.

The first day Clover went into heat this last time, she completely lost her mind when I left their yard after evening feeding time. I was walking away from the gate, she was yelling, and the next thing I knew, she ran right past me in the people yard. She just ran through our yard, across the street toward their pasture. When she reached the pasture, she screeched to a halt and looked around, like she was suddenly wondering "What am I doing? Where am I going? What now?" Then she ran furiously back to me and stopped. Then she ran up our yard and jumped on a table. I tell you, that poor girl is having a hard time of it. I felt so bad for her. I grasped her collar and led her back into her yard - she walked with me without a fight. I locked a second lock on the gate, thinking that she must have pushed her way through the bottom of the gate. Two steps away, I decided to look back - and there she was, leaping gracefully over the four foot fence. I had to chase her down, then again, led her back to her yard. Unfortunately, she and Tulip and Juniper had to spend the rest of the day and night closed up inside the barn. The next morning I put up an extender at the part where she jumped over the fence and hoped for the best. She checked it out and even looked like she might try it, but I could see that she had decided it wouldn't work.

She could have easily jumped over other parts of the fence, but she didn't try. I don't know why, but I'm glad of it. By that evening, she had visibly calmed down, and the next day, she was back to normal. I only have fifteen more days until the madness begins again.