Coco's birth as perceived at a mall

What an amazing weekend! I am so glad Margaret was here to save the day -- more than once. Friday and Saturday, I was speaking at a homeschool conference, and Sunday, Mike joined me, and we attended an apple tree grafting seminar and came home with six newly grafted apple trees that we'll be planting in about a month.

Friday, I had finished my first presentation and realized that the hotel was quite warm. I had, unfortunately packed turtlenecks. Not wanting to pass out in front of an audience, I thought it would be prudent to go shopping and buy a non-turtleneck to wear for Saturday's presentations. As Katherine and I were getting out of the car at the mall, she received a text message from Margaret saying that Coco was in labor. I immediately wanted to get back into the car and head home! Only minutes earlier, the vet from U of I had finally called me back and explained the whole procedure for a c-section and said that it would be somewhere between $150 and $300.

Katherine called home and learned that Coco's water had already broken, so she would either give birth or be on her way to U of I by the time we could get home. So, I was pacing through the department store, hardly looking at anything. I called home again and instructed Jonathan to call me the minute a kid was born. A few minutes later, the call came that Coco had given birth to a Nigerian buck. I felt slightly better, although I went from worrying about the kids being too big to worrying about having a bunch of tiny Nigerian quads or quints!

After another 20 minutes, my phone crowed again (a rooster is my ring tone), and I quickly answered. Mike said there were still just the first two. Two? No one called me about a second one. Oops, sorry about that. Yeah, she had a second buck. Mike also informed me that the first buck didn't have any noticeable horn buds, but he added that the kid was small, so maybe he just hadn't developed them yet. Could Draco be the dad? Hmm . . . I know I wanted to breed her to Draco, but I didn't think that had happened.

After another 20 minutes or so, I learned that number three and four were born, and she finally had a doe. And when I say "finally," I don't just mean finally after three bucks on Friday. I mean "finally" after having triplet bucks and twin bucks in past years! Since it looks like she is going to be one of those does who throws almost all of one sex, it is certainly tempting to keep the little doe. Argh! I wasn't going to keep any kids this year! I need to reduce my numbers! But I have heard of does only throwing two or three doelings in their entire lives. But my oldest child -- and number one milker -- is going off to college next fall! And I've already been thinking that I'll keep Lizzie's doe since she's polled, and I've never kept a doe from Lizzie, who is already four. Coco is five. Ugh! Decisions!