Today was a day of totally mixed emotions and it began with that of sadness and anger. It was a very cold morning with a very heavy frost, so I headed outside early to check on our little 'Billy' . . . he was gone! I couldn't find him anywhere . . . I searched and searched the cold icy paddock, zig-zagging my way up and down looking to see if he'd wandered from the shed and collapsed in the grass somewhere BUT no . . . he was no-where to be found. I searched along the total fence line of the paddock but still no luck . . . he was gone . . . I guess by a fox!
I couldn't believe that he wasn't there . . . I kept looking and looking, thinking he must be here somewhere BUT no . . . he was gone! I was so sad and angry all at the same time . . . obviously the herd just wasn't able to protect him and then I felt really guilty that we hadn't done enough to save his little life. I hate foxes . . . I know it's just the way nature is BUT still . . . not our little 'Billy'!
Here's the very last photo I took of him yesterday afternoon on my phone . . . poor little thing!

Putting what had happened behind us and knowing that we still had a pregnant doe in the herd, we decided to go ahead with the building of our pen and enclosing the shed so that she would have some protection when the time came. We might have lost 'Billy' but we certainly weren't going to let that happen to another little baby goat!
So, we spent today building our goat enclosure and whilst in the paddock we noticed that one of the goats kept removing herself from the herd and kept going off on her own, laying down under the trees, standing up, sitting down, standing up, walking, stopping, laying down . . . something we hadn't seen her do before . . . could she possibly be in labour we wondered? Mmm - it was a possibility!

We finished the enclosure in the very late afternoon/early evening and decided to herd all the goats into the pen and then remove the non-pregnant ones . . . it took us about half an hour I suppose, but finally we had 'Patch' - the one we knew was pregnant and 'Speckles' the one photographed above, who we thought might have been in labour.
Phew! What a day!
We decided to go out and check on the goats at about 8.30pm and you wouldn't believe what had happened! 'Speckles' had indeed been in the labour and had delivered a beautiful little baby - SHE was still wet and standing there bleeting in the torch light, so I quickly picked her up and popped her in the shed. 'Speckles' followed in behind and we then shut and secured the gate . . . no fox was going to get another easy meal from our place!
I'll be back to share some photos tomorrow - such sadness and delight all in one day!
Until next time . . .