The Hard Part About Owning animals

We get asked all the time what the hardest thing about having animals is. Most people think that the hardest part is all the work that we have to do. But in all honesty that is not the hardest part about owning goats or any animals for that matter.

The hardest part about owning goats is not...Trimming hoves, raking pens, doing midnight baby checks when it's 25 degrees out. It's not those rare midnight milkings, it's not all the extra work, it's not the time taken from reading or watching TV to make sure the animals get all that they need to.

No, the hardest part about owning animals is losing them.  It's hard losing a goat even though you know that they are going to die.  When you know that they aren't doing well at all and there is nothing that you can do for them, that is one of the hardest things.  

The only thing that is harder then having a sick goat and knowing that there is nothing that you can do for them, is having a goat that is seemeling fine one day and gone the next.  You see the goat and it is alive and as far as you can see acting fine and then the next day they are gone. That's the worst thing ever!!  That feeling that there had to be something that you missed that might have saved the goats life, that thought that maybe if you had been there three minutes earlier you might have been able to help is hard to take.  Even though you know deep down that there really was nothing you could have done to

And yesterday that is what happened. I say yesterday, as it was before we went to bed, but we found one of our lovely Nubains had died between milking and this last check of the goats. It's really hard losing a goat esp. when she is one of you favorites and the foundation of your herd. The only thing that about this is that God is in control and he knows what I do and don't need for my herd, even with that in mind it is very hard to lose Dawn.

I am very thankful though that my dad has given me permission to Dawn's kids from this year (she had them Saturday morning while I was at market.)  Hopefully they will grow up to be an asset to my herd.  Though I will miss seeing Dawn the Tank out in the pasture sunning herself, I can't wait to see what these little guys will look like and how they will help mine and the families Nubian herd.

Now, to decide what to call these boys.  :D