First Day of the Year Doings

There's an old wives-tale that tells us
"whatever you do on New Years Day is what you'll be doing all year long"
Of course, this was probably just a trick thought up by some parent who wanted their kids to please clean up their rooms.

But still it makes you wonder...

What were YOU doing that day?

I hope the saying isn't true because I had a day
I'd rather not repeat ever again... not that it was ALL bad.

The Boer nanny 'wild one', gave birth to tripletts Dec 30th.
Two babies weren't doing well,
so the next day we brought them to the house
and did everything we could to save them.
The boy was frantic when we first brought him in,
thrashing around wildly and crying.
I very gently massaged them both for hours
(to help their circulation and to comfort) ,
and since they wouldn't nurse a bottle, I got some milk into them
with an eyedropper.
The boy finally calmed down
and died peacefully in his sleep at 7 p.m.

The girl hung on
and looked deep into my eyes as I talked to her,
sometimes in people talk, sometimes in goat talk
(i know you're laughing, but when you live on a farm,
you eventually learn to talk to the animals in their language,
it's not that hard to do).
She had the most beautiful soulful eyes
that looked right straight into mine,
her long lashes sweeping almost to her ears.
She was a gorgeous doll!
She wimpered from hunger
about the same time her brother died,
so I gave her a dropper & half of milk.
She shocked me by struggling to her feet to pee,
then stumbled around the room exploring.
As I cleaned up behind her,
I gave thanks for this wonderful miracle,
and laughed as her curiosity led her all over the room.

At bedtime,
I tucked her into the huge dog-cage we keep for this purpose.
She was snug as a bug and didn't make a sound.
I waited up till 2:30 a.m. for her to wake up hungry but she never did,
so after checking her breathing, I went to bed.

The new year was looking brighter.

But not for long...

At 5:30 a.m. her faint crys woke me & I went to her.
I could tell instantly she wasn't going to make it.

I warmed some milk and offered it to her but she refused.
So over the the next hour & half,
I sat in my recliner,
with her in my arms wrapped in a towel just like a human baby,
while she slowly died.

Death doesn't always happen instantly for everything that dies.
The organs slowly one by one stop functioning
till at last the lungs breath their last,
and thats what happened with her.

Every minute or so, she would cry out very weakly
as another organ stopped.
Her breath came in gasps with no breathing in between.
I tried to close her eyes, but she wouldn't close them,
just kept staring into mine like she was trying to tell me something,
or like she just couldn't give up that
last moment of seeing the world that she would never get to be a part of.
Finally at 7 a.m. she was gone.

The normal "why why why's" cried out in my head.

Living on a farm, I've had to learn to accept that death is part of life.
But when she was doing so well the night before,
why did she go back down so fast?
Just a teeny, tiny, sweet, perfectly beautiful baby girl,
given only 2 days of life.

What a waste...

Being New Years Day,
I asked 'boss' not to bury them till the next day (Jan 2nd),
so we wouldn't be burying babies all year long
as the old-wives-tale would have us believe.
..............................................................................

After that,
the day perked up a bit.

We went to eat 'hoppin john' and greens with boss's family,
then to the craft store to load up on beads and supplies.
Soon as we got home, I jumped on organizing the beads & tools,
so if the old-wives-tale is true,
I'd be making jewelry all year long
instead of comforting dying babies.

Part of my job here on the farm is being a
'goat hospice caregiver'.
Not that its required of me,
I could just walk away from them
and let nature take its course.
But I can't do that.
I don't want one single animal to have to suffer
and die all alone, cold, wet, on the hard ground.
I hold them in my arms till the very end,
talking gently to them, letting them know they are loved & will be missed,
that the angels will be coming for them soon.

Do animals have souls? You better believe it!

They love their babies just as much as we love ours,
they love US
with the sweetest most complete unconditional love,
they feel jealousy just like we do,
they feel the joy of living just like we do,
they feel the same fears that we do,
and they mourn the loss of each other just like we do.
They aren't stupid
and they don't live by 'instinct' like some people think.
They aren't 'dumb' animals because they lack intelligence
but because of a lack of being able to talk
like we do ( as in deaf & dumb).

My kinship with animals is as
brothers & sisters,
they are not a 'lower' life form.

For these reasons,
I have been a vegan for 35 years.

Graphics by PennyParker