Annie's big surprise

Sunday night, I had a visitor who was looking at Scandal's kids, but when she saw Annie, she thought she might like a kid out of her. When Annie turned her back to us, there was a thin string of mucous hanging down. The emphasis here is on the word "thin" because when I see a thick gooey string of mucous, it usually means kids within a couple hours.

Annie's doeling was born first.

Nearly 24 hours later, Annie was in hard labor. She quickly gave birth to three kids -- a doe first, followed by two bucks. Katherine came into the barn about ten minutes later, and we were chatting when Annie plopped down and pushed a little. We figured it was the placenta. But then she stood up and seemed perfectly happy again. About twenty minutes later, she pawed at the ground, then laid down without paying attention to where her babies were standing or lying, and Katherine grabbed the little doeling just as Annie was about to lay on her. Then Annie let out a yell, and we briefly considered the possibility of a fourth kid, but then a bubble appeared, and we chuckled about how she was trying to fool us just like Scandal had done a few days earlier. A moment later, Annie screamed again, and as another bubble started to emerge, I saw something black inside it.

"Is that a kid?"

I grabbed a towel as it came sliding out. It was indeed another kid -- another buck!

I've come to the conclusion that nothing should surprise me this kidding season. Nine years of raising goats really means nothing, because in the great realm of possibilities, anything is possible.

In case you've lost count, this is our sixth set of quadruplets this year. On average, we have one set of quads a year. And we had our first set of quints this year. This is more than a little crazy!