People Who Can’t Look After Animals Shouldn’t Have Them!

Today we went for a drive to Orroroo to take back a goat, that a woman (I won’t mention names) left with us to be mated. At the same time, she bought a goat called Deborah from us. That was three months ago, and when the woman didn’t come back for her goat, my husband phoned her.

She said that she couldn’t feed two goats, so would we take our goat, Deborah back? At the same time, she said that she would bring Deborah back in a couple of weeks time and pick up her goat, that we called Blossom. She never did turn up, so my husband phoned her again last night, and she said that we could pick up Deborah from out front of her place, and to leave Blossom tethered there in her place.

When we arrived at her place, we found Deborah tethered out the front with nothing but a drinking bowl. There was no hay, and the area where she was was just weeds. I nearly cried when I saw Deborah – she was all skin and bones. Three months ago, when she picked up Deborah from us, she was built like a Mack truck, but now she was so emaciated that she looked like a refugee from a concentration camp!

We have brought her home, given her some fresh hay, drenched and re-vaccinated her, and she has been nuzzling us. Deborah will have a home here – no more buyers for her, and I’ll definitely be more careful about who we sell goats to from now on. After all, they can’t feed or look after themselves, and we are called on to look after our animals!

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

A Final Rose for Bathsheba

I shall miss Bathsheba, my pet goat, and her mischievous ways. I shall miss feeding her the most beautiful roses, her nuzzling when I entered the goat yard, her jumping up against the fence when she heard someone in the house yard, just in case they were going to feed her roses, and I shall miss her love. I know, you’ll say, “How can a goat love, but she gave more love than most people ever know how to give, in a lifetime.”

It’s just not fair that she had to die, and although I know that the Lord gives and He also takes away, it doesn’t make it any easier to understand why she died of enterotoxaemia (pulpy kidney). Our goats are all vaccinated against this awful disease, but still she died from it, and I shall miss her immensely. She was our first goat, she produced divine babies, and we still have her daughter, Susannah here. I’m not sure that I want to call her a pet though, after the last week.

What is enterotoxaemia?

Click here to find out.

The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21

Rebekah – A Beautiful Goat

The past couple of days have been days of sadness in this household. My daughter’s pet goat, Rebekah, suddenly died. There was no period of sickness before she died – she had a bout of gastro, and my husband gave her some anti-diarrhoeal medication. She had a huge drink and something to eat soon after, so my husband thought that she was going to get better. However, an hour later, when my husband went to check on her, she was already dead. Nevertheless, my daughter is devastated, and she isn’t the only one.

Below is a poem that my daughter wrote about Rebekah ages ago, probably not ever dreaming that one day all that she would have left is the poetry, the photos and the memories.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55