Triplets!!!

As my day would have it, in the middle of shearing my 8 alpacas, Bhyrr, my 10 year-old Angora goat dropped a set of triplets - 2 does, 1 buck - and decided not to be their mom.  I don't know how an animal does that, but I guess it is the same mentality that women have who decide not to be a mother to their kids.  However, she doesn't get off that easy.

I had to stop shearing long enough to milk enough colostrum from her to feed her very tiny kids to ensure they had the strength to make it through the day.  Every 4 hours since then, I have milked the goat, fed the babies.  Momma and kids are confined in a stall so that she has to smell them and look at them and they get to climb on her and lay against her.  The little billy while eager to suckle, just doesn't understand what a teat or nipple is for.  Early this morning, I think he finally got the knack of the nipple, but, even though a coated the teat with a layer of momma's colostrum, he still didn't grab on.  It's gonna be a long, long week!