The Tail of Woe

The sun came out and Beanie and friends forgot about their horns. The horns they used to one day be going to have. But not any more.

They went outside with their mothers on full display to the rest of the herd. The herd watched from behind the fat girl fence.

"That one looks okay," said Winjay, referring to Nelly. "Not great but okay."

"That one is reasonably presentable," said Belle Starr, referring to Bluey.

"I have seen worse looking kids than that one," allowed Abby, looking at Blacky.

Then came Butterbean and an uncomplimentary silence fell.

"I have not seen that before," Cherry finally said.

"That is a new twist," remarked Pebbles.

"Maybe it will come in later," postulated Crumpet, optimistically.

"Even Pinky used to have two ears," blurted Moony.

Beanie proceeded hopping about, ignoring his critics. Because after all everyone is a critic. Throw a rock, hit a critic. He looked perfectly fine after all. From certain angles. When you couldn't see that he didn't have a tail.

All Good Dreamers Pass This Way

Today is a day of bitterness and regret and we will not say anything further about the secrets of Beanie Baby until the sun comes out again and the fog of remorse has lifted. On this day in the Year A.D. 2017 Beanie, Nelly, Blacky* and Bluey* all had their horns removed. They have no comment on anything today. They don't want nobody coming over to their table, they got nothing to talk to anybody about. Over and out.

*temporary names, just for now

Beanie Baby

So that makes four kids, three bucklings and one doeling. Two of the bucklings are extraordinarily handsome, and the doeling is very beautiful, a cou clair with big glassy frog eyes. Her name is going to be Nelly, short for Cochranella, which is a kind of glass frog with big glassy frog eyes, like an amphibian china doll. If you are guessing that her mother is Froggy you are on the right track.

There are two black and white boys, both belong to Wembley, and they are currently being subjected to the farmer's naming scheme for simpletons - "just for now." One is being called Blacky, and the other, the one with the blue eyes, is being called Bluey. Aside from their names they are excellent specimens. And so is the girl, even if she is a little on the jittery side.

And then we come to Butterbean. That is the last buckling. His name is Butterbean. He got his name right away. The farmer looked at him and said, "hello, Butterbean."

He also belongs to Froggy. But he looks nothing like her. And he looks nothing like his sister, either.

He is a pale drab orangey white, suspiciously like June Bug, his half-sister. He also has her bat ears. He runs like a burlap sack full of old sneakers being thrown down the basement stairs.

"He has a good personality, though," the farmer says, watching him canter about with an expression that says, 'oh, dear.'

He is very chubby and likes to cuddle, and after calling him Butterbean for a while the farmer started calling him Beanie, and it didn't take long after that that we would hear, "Beanie Baby!" and then see him galumphing toward the farmer in all his orange splendor.

Oh dear. And that isn't the worst of it. Worst is yet to be told.

Seven Ways From Sunday

So Wembley started in to laboring and the farmer got the stool for sitting on, the Kindle for reading, the towels, the gatorade, the special treats, the dental floss for the baby goat cords, the iodine for the dipping, the gloves I don't know why because they never get used, the lube because if you don't have it you will always need it, the feed sack for catching babies when they fall out, et cetera and so on.

And Wembley did a lot of preambling, just strolling irritably around and getting up and lying down and examining and then refusing to eat all proferred refreshments, and so on, second verse same as the first. And then she started in to do something that the farmer really does not like: lying down but not pushing, giving one sharp yip of pain, just like she had stepped on a nail, and jumping back up.

This usually means someone is not getting lined up right to come out. "I hope this isn't going to be one of those seven-ways-from-Sunday breech festivals," the farmer said to Dolly, who was lying outside the stall door. Dolly gave a noncommittal look, obviously she didn't want to say anything, but the way things were going, it probably would be a seven-ways-from-Sunday breech festival.

Nothing continued to happen and finally the farmer fished around and sure enough someone's hock was jammed up against the exit door and the farmer went quickly and washed with hot water but by the time the farmer came back two rear legs were out which makes the whole thing a piece of cake and so the farmer just pulled that one out and it was a little hard to start but then it sneezed mightily and all systems were go.

Ok then back to the yipping and sure enough another breech buckling,  but that one came out without too much trouble either and so all in all it could have been much worse. C Minus kidding score.

Two days later Froggy lost her ligaments and the farmer put Froggy in a kidding stall, where Froggy began devouring all the refreshments in sight. "Listen," said the farmer, "I am going to get the supplies and I don't want any more trouble." Froggy was not listening because she was neck deep in the feeder.

The farmer went to get the Kindle, the stool, the dental floss, the iodine, the special treats,  the gloves, the lube, the feed sacks. When the farmer came back Froggy was still neck deep in the feeder only now she had two kids with her, one crybaby buckling and one dreamy-eyed doeling, sway-standing the way the new babies like to do.

"If you want to do it like that," said the farmer, "that is fine with me."

Beyond the Rumen

Time out from June Bug.

Wembley and Froggy were getting ready to kid. They were neither one very big and the farmer hoped poor Wembley wasn't going to pop a big single buck kid because she is a first freshener and first fresheners have enough trouble anyway but the way things go that's what would probably happen, a big single buck kid with a head like a basketball and stupefied the way the big little boys get from just being big and being bucklings and being somewhat overcooked.

Once you are around goat farmers for a while you will understand their sour phrases. If they start talking about kidding season and one of them asks the other, how did your doe do? And the second one says, sourly, "Single Buck Kid," the first one will understand that it is a good time to say no more.

Last year Froggy was a first freshener and she had a big single buck kid, Tadpole, only she is a Terra Belle daughter and Terra Belle has this thing where she launches kids out like one of those medieval boulder throwers and all you have to do is catch them in a towel so they don't go shooting head first into the wall and Froggy was the same way. Even though her son Tadpole was a fine strapping lad he shot out in record time and luckily landed in a big heap of straw because the farmer was watching the tv news because "There's plenty of time, it's only half an hour long and Froggy won't be kidding for quite a while, she just started lying down."

Ok well the race was on and Wembley went to the kidding stall first. Wembley had been upset since she came up to the big barn because she doesn't like going anywhere without her mother Betty and also because she was a first freshener and she was just upset in general and before long the farmer moved her to a private stall because otherwise she was full of complaints. She kept calling for her mother who ignored her and then she started feeling strange happenings inside herself, deep inside beyond the rumen, and she didn't like that one bit so she would alternate between calling Betty and calling on the Great Goat in the Sky to relieve her indigestion. And they both ignored her.

(to be continued)....

The HoG Pt 3

All right ok June comes from the Jupiter line and the Jupiter line of course is all Rosasharn and Rosasharn of course like every other line goes back Goodwood and Stonewall because that is where all roads lead, even Twinks Pixie goes back Goodwood. I didn't say it would be interesting I just said it would be history.

These lines were brought in because even though they are different from the Belle lines they are very similar and bla bla bla some theory of breeding bla bla bla milk maximization without personality disorder...bla bla bla. So that is the roots of June.

But does this explain the actual June? Could even Dr. Frankenstein have predicted the actual June? The theoretical June is fine, she looks good on paper, which is where she should have stayed, everyone looks fine on paper, but the actual June. That is another story.

Here is a brief perhaps even scanty list of June's defects and demerits:

1. Food thief. She is only about two inches tall so can sneak anywhere. Will steal from anyone even the herdqueen if there is an escape route nearby.

2. Inadequate height. See above.

3. Inadequate color. Pale sort of drab orange pinkish white. Little black button eyes like a shark. Nondescript to a t.

4. Inadequate respect for elders. See #1.

5. Inadequate respect for superiors (everybody). See #1.

6. Inadequate supply of humility.

This is the tip. Of the iceberg. Will continue with more of her shortcomings in The HoG Pt 4 but we probably have to do a baby update first.

The History of Goats Part Two

Ok where were we. June.

Ok June is the daughter of Starlord who goes back Drops of Jupiter top and bottom as previously mentioned. How Drops of Jupiter got his name is probably the same way most goats get their name. He was probably named by a girl. And Drops of Jupiter is a girls' pop song by the group Train that came out in 2001, as also previously mentioned in Part One.

There are tons of goats with pop song names for this reason. If you can think of a pop song that little girls and their mothers love there will be goats with that name. In fact there are 14 goats named Drops of Jupiter but only one of them is the famous THE Drops of Jupiter and he is June's great-grandfather and her double great grandfather and a few other relations as well which is how it goes in the goat world where everybody knows everybody. The goat world is a snowglobe, it's the perfect little teapot for a tempest.

The farmer being weak-minded did not know anything about Drops of Jupiter but listened to it once and then dutifully picked out a line from the song for June's name, which is Herron Hill Walks Like June. Only the line from the song is actually Talks Like June, but the farmer as usual wasn't listening that closely, oh well nobody will notice and the papers already got sent in and we are just going to call her June Bug anyway.

June doesn't know anything about Drops of Jupiter either and she wouldn't care if she did, if he is even still alive he is probably just another little pale pink orange red Rosasharn-looking goat like she is and she has no interest in goats, she is only interested in food and people. Or, as she thinks about it, food and the hoofless food delivery systems on two legs.

I'm sorry we didn't really get anywhere in this part. But we will in Part Three.

The History of Goats Part One

The story of June.

June was born into a normal family with normal parents. Reasonably normal parents. Her parents were Faraway and Starlord. It turned out that Starlord was fairly small. Gradually the Nigerian bucks keep creeping up in size and some of them were getting too big especially since the Belle family usually runs to plus sizes this is because they are really good milkers. Faraway is a Poppy-Chaos daughter and the Chaos family being Promisedland also runs above average size so the farmer said OK we better find a little guy somewhere but not one of those shrimps with daughters that don't milk. The farmer is monomaniacal on milk. That is all we hear about. Milk milk milk.

So anyway the farmer found Starlord, who goes back to Drops of Jupiter top and bottom. And Starlord came in to see if he could breed some bigger girls down a little without ruining production.

Drops of Jupiter you are probably saying, isn't that an old Train song? Where the singer has hair from a previous century, has lost his ability to do up buttons, and wears leather pants?

Why yes. It isn't pretty but that is where we have to start.