January ‘08

Well January marks the start of a new year and amongst the many hopes and plans for the year ahead are further fencing of wood/crag land and a nice dry summer. One of the aforementioned plans we will be looking for donations/sponsorship towards and the other we shall just be asking for everyone to send warm happy vibes to mother nature for ;o))

As with all winter months the additional feeding and bedding required adds heavily to the workload .............. which plays havoc with the bone and muscle structure of the goat’s slave & master.

February ‘o8

In line with the ending to January’s notes I felt compelled to compose a short ‘poem’ -

“Ode To Animal Carers In Wet & Windy Weather”

The wet and windy weather is here again

Back on with the wellies and waterproof gear

Please Mother Nature show mercy for all ‘men’

As the winds and the rain pound us from the rear

The bales and the feed bags are heavy

Through the puddles and mud we must plod each day

And at night wearily comfort ourselves with a warm bevy

As we await news of dry weather coming our way

Our bones and muscles are so tired and sore

Oh news of a good summer we sure would adore ......

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During this month we welcomed two new arrivals to the sanctuary, a 7yr old male pygmy and a 1yr old mixed breed male.  They settled in quite fast and soon decided that they would prefer a change of scenery or perhaps it was their companions they weren’t impressed with as when I went out feeding one day I discovered they had moved down to the boys in the woods during the night.  Nothing like choosing your own neighbourhood I suppose ;o))

On the 23rd of the month we welcomed yet another male to our ever growing family

.. say hello to Charlie, the first orphan to arrive this year...he sure loves bottle time

The 27th happily brought us the first girl born in 2008 at the sanctuary ..

... ain’t she a cutie pie  ............

The honour of naming this wee girlie went to an avid supporter and fan of the goats here at the sanctuary :-

Siobhan Fitzgerald, of Longfield in Cashel, Co Tipperary

and she chose the very apt name of “Bainne” for her

Thanks Siobhan :o))

March ‘08

On the 5th of the month I think somebody was playing with some kind of voodoo doll as things were absolutely hectic. At lunchtime there was a lot of crying coming from one of the fields and upon investigation I discovered a nanny had given birth to twins, this was the first set of twins to be born so one would have thought there would be great joy and celebrations but not this was not to be the case as their mum had literally given birth and ran off without even cleaning them .... poor poor babies ;o(

Clean towels were fetched and they were cleaned off and placed onto some nice warm hay but still not sign of their mum coming to get them ....... it was essential to get some milk into them as they were approx 3 hours old at that stage so off I set with them all wrapped up in a blanket in my arms and some formula milk was prepared and a little bed for them by the warm stove in the sitting room ....... you can imagine what must have been going through the minds of the resident dogs upon seeing the latest infringement of ‘their’ space ;o)) Following nursing them a further search for their mum took place but she couldn’t be caught despite all efforts to trap her.  The new arrivals quickly went from the status of first born twins to orphans ............. Unfortunately the camera was on the missing in action list so no newborn photos of them got taken but here they are at just over 2weeks old in their ‘day-pen’ ......

Another birth also occurred just a few hours after the twins were born, this time it was a much smoother arrival into the world, welcome please ... ‘Ita’s Daughter’, the first coloured kid born ....... she’s waiting patiently for a name, as is Princess’ daughter who was born on the 9th and Pebbles’ daughter who was born on the 14th ... we intend to hold a ‘naming raffle’ for the three girls during April as part of our 2008 fund raising initiatives  ; o))

On a final note for March there were obviously a few of the goats sending ‘tree falling’ vibes to one of the storms during March as a tree heavily laden with ivy fell and once it was cut up the goats got working on it straight away. I think it is safe to say there were a lot of satisfied stomachs that day ;o))

April ‘08

Coming Soon ..............

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