Goodbye Goatlings, Hello Family!

We said goodbye to our little doelings yesterday, sending them off to the best home imaginable with our good friends Marie and Loren. Missy was more than happy to bid them farewell, not even bothering to stand for a parting "maaah." "Good riddance," she seemed to say, and "thank goodness THAT's done." She's a good and loving mother, but not a clinging one. Had she been a horse dam, she might have thrown herself upon the fence in prostrate grief, or run herself into a foaming lather to the accompaniment of wrenching screams. She is not a horse dam, and she didn't.

My brothers and their girlfriends arrive tomorrow and thursday, and by the weekend we'll have a generous dozen visitors, including nieces and nephews, at Bent Barrow Farm. We can rock the petting zoo vibe even without the doelings, and our army of fluffy dogs, velvety bunnies, patient cats, stoic mules, peeping chicks, milking goats, and happy hens are ready and waiting. For the anti-pet set, we can offer . . . um . . . lettuce. Lots of lettuce.

M