Jenny, our Alpine third freshener, had kids! Our first triplets! Their names are Wot Wot, Laddie Buck, and Dontcha Know (this year's kids are themed after the Redwall books).
Jenny was bred by Pecan, our naughty fence-jumping little Nigerian buck who was sold due to misbehavior. During pregnancy, Jenny was rather thin and she never got quite so miserably enormous as she did last year when she had twins. Because of this, Suzie thought she would only have one kid.
Jenny's labor began in the morning-- we think, anyway. She was being restless, stuck to the woods in the pasture alone, and had other such signs of labor. We checked her often, but nothing seemed to be happening so we lost interest and went on with our day. Later that afternoon I went down to check her and-- she had a brown kid. I took off my jacket and used it to clean out its nose and mouth so it could breathe and by then Jenny began pushing again. She pushed out a dark buck, I knelt to clean him up, and Jenny started pushing yet again. I ran to the house and got Suzie. When we returned she had pushed the third and final kid out.
Wot Wot, the doe, was first, Laddie Buck was second, and Dontcha Know was third. I had told Suzie months before that if we ever had triplets we should name them the three most common phrases uttered by hares in Redwall. I had completely forgotten about my idea when the trips were born. It was Suzie who brought it back up and that's what we named them.
Since then, the kids have been doing pretty well, with a few minor incidents. The triplets are hard on their mother, always fighting over the two teats on her udder. Poor Jenny's udder is in bad shape and we have to give her massages and udder balm. Dontcha, who is a little runty, was sick for a while, but he seems to be over it now. When Honey kidded, Laddie quickly discovered that the competition for Honey's udder was much easier to handle than fighting with siblings his same size for his own mother's udder. For a few days Honey just let him! Thankfully, she has finally learned who her kids are and she kicks Laddie off.
Jenny was bred by Pecan, our naughty fence-jumping little Nigerian buck who was sold due to misbehavior. During pregnancy, Jenny was rather thin and she never got quite so miserably enormous as she did last year when she had twins. Because of this, Suzie thought she would only have one kid.
Jenny's labor began in the morning-- we think, anyway. She was being restless, stuck to the woods in the pasture alone, and had other such signs of labor. We checked her often, but nothing seemed to be happening so we lost interest and went on with our day. Later that afternoon I went down to check her and-- she had a brown kid. I took off my jacket and used it to clean out its nose and mouth so it could breathe and by then Jenny began pushing again. She pushed out a dark buck, I knelt to clean him up, and Jenny started pushing yet again. I ran to the house and got Suzie. When we returned she had pushed the third and final kid out.
Wot Wot, the doe, was first, Laddie Buck was second, and Dontcha Know was third. I had told Suzie months before that if we ever had triplets we should name them the three most common phrases uttered by hares in Redwall. I had completely forgotten about my idea when the trips were born. It was Suzie who brought it back up and that's what we named them.
Since then, the kids have been doing pretty well, with a few minor incidents. The triplets are hard on their mother, always fighting over the two teats on her udder. Poor Jenny's udder is in bad shape and we have to give her massages and udder balm. Dontcha, who is a little runty, was sick for a while, but he seems to be over it now. When Honey kidded, Laddie quickly discovered that the competition for Honey's udder was much easier to handle than fighting with siblings his same size for his own mother's udder. For a few days Honey just let him! Thankfully, she has finally learned who her kids are and she kicks Laddie off.
Left to right, top to bottom: Jenny and Dontcha; Laddie at the water buckets; Wot being adorable; Dontcha eating alfalfa; Laddie eating alfalfa; Wot on the milking stand
