Bye Bye Billy

Bye Bye Billy. Billy the Kid (AKA William Bonney) "was" our billy goat. He's a four year old South African Boer Goat. My Honey sold him to a co-worker this past week. He had to deliver him, which meant taking a 200 pound goat for a 300 mile road trip. It is so unlike us to "sell" anything but this was for the best. Billy now lives in a big pasture with twenty girlfriends. At "our place", he had to live alone. We had kept him separate from our other three goats for quite some time now. Our "pet" goats were rescues that we raised on a bottle. It was My Honey's idea to get a billy goat, which was not a problem for me, at least not at first. As I've mentioned, My Honey is out of town at least half of the time. It seems as though when the "blessed events" occur around our place he is always gone. Well, Miss Lilly had two big baby boys without problem. That same morning, Zena was in labor as well. By the evening she was in major distress. From my years of working in hospitals, I'd seen a number of human babies born and recognized that Zena was what they would have termed in a state of "failure to progress". In human terms that would have been grounds to do a emergency Cesarean-section, which I was in no way prepared to do. Without a vet available to help, I decided that Zena would die without invervention. I carefully tried to turn the baby which was not in the proper position. One of the baby's legs was folded back. I knew that she would not be able to deliver this baby on her own. At that point, so much time had passed, that I thought that the baby was still-born and my intention was to save the momma goat. Much to my surprise, I was able to carefully reposition the baby and literally pull her into this world. The baby was lifeless and discolored but I attempted my own version of CPR anyhow. I was shocked when she took her first breath. By this time is was late at night, Zena was drained of all energy and promptly rejected this tiny little baby girl. Being rejected by the mother was the reason that we took Zena as a rescue and raised her on a bottle. By then I realized that I would have to step in as foster mom and raise this baby also. I set up a large pet crate in the house and started bottle feeding Baby Zora. It took three and a half months to wean her off the bottle. She was a "good drinker", unlike Zena that I had to force every drop of milk in her for the duration of her "kid-hood". Zora is now three years old and she still thinks I'm her mom. She lives with the other two goats, but she still cries when she sees me or hears my voice. I think that she still misses "watching" satellite TV and the other perks of living indoors.