Warning: Picture Heavy Post

Lots of good pictures these last few days, so I thought I would use a few today, since I did a more serious post yesterday about the "Battle" of Blackjack. 

Here's the henspa, on it's way to being cleaned out and re-bedded. 

Bless you, Keith, for making it so easy to rake everything out onto the ground in the henyard.  Here it will be turned into more compost by the girls and boys. 

The funny thing was... I just missed taking a picture of a large snake who had come out from under the building to inspect the straw I was raking down. 

The girls began picking through the dust and straw as I was raking. 

And then dug into the fresh straw full force! 

The birds outside benefited too, as I made three piles of straw with what was left over from the bale, and they happily tore into it. 

This greeted me in the haybarn yesterday morning when I went to get the straw bale out and load it on the wagon.  Lovely.  Now I have to worry here, too. 

And another in the hay feeder in the goat yard.... lovely. 

It was bigger. 

I am ashamed to tell you I do not know my butterflies, but this beautiful creature was on the buddleia. 

Keith has now seen hummingbirds AT NIGHT 3 times in the last week! 

This amazing autumn clematis is at my neighbor Kathy's, and I took the picture when I left tomatoes there for them last night. 

Someone has been helping her mommy do chores again, and I'm so glad. 

The Khaki Campbell girls have bleached out in the summer sun this summer.  Fawni and Spice are now almost the same light color.  Cinnamon kept her darker coloring, but just barely.  Aflac is still very white, instead of yellowish. 

The Duck Pond Express is now back on the road, as of today, since we have not had rain for two weeks. 

And now, here at the end of this post, I must write about something sad. 

You may have noticed a few pictures this week of Kelly and Kody. 

And wondered where Kaycee was. 

Here is the "Little Black Brother from the Same Mother"... as I always called him, at three weeks, with his frosted ears.  It was my own little joke, because he was the largest of all the goats, and of course, from Sage, the same mother as Kody. 

You may remember that he had a terrible time last Wednesday and we had to take him to Dr. Jeanie, our vet, to have his bladder emptied. 

Thursday and Friday, he was fine, or appeared to be. 

Here he is on Friday evening, about 7:30.  He and Kody and Kelly had been playing on the deck as Keith and I talked.  He loved Keith, and kept jumping up and down off and onto his lap. 

At 10:30, I was getting ready to go to bed, and had turned the air off and opened the windows.  I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and heard a scream from the night.  I grabbed my flashlight, put on my shoes, and ran out there.  A shine of the spotlight into the barn showed me that Kaycee was in great distress again.  I got Keith, and we tried to manually express him, as he screamed in pain each time he tried to pee.  We were able to get only a few drops out, and had to leave the poor little thing in the barn.  

He was unable to lay down. 

I had a fitful night, worrying myself sick. 

The next morning, I woke up early and called Dr. Jeanie.  I did not know it at the time, but her phone had malfunctioned, and she only happened to see my call as she got into the shower. 

She told me to come right over. 

When we got there, she examined Kaycee, who by this time, was so full he was dripping. 

He was in pain.  

She offered to show us how to manually relieve him, but we would have had to do this several times a day.  After a discussion about the stones/crystals/urinary calculi, and the offer of contacting another vet to do the very complicated surgery to change his anatomy.... which is only 50% successful in all surgeries... a decision was made by ME to euthanize him.  Keith had already given permission.  

Dr. Jeanie suggested I donate him for her to "practice" the surgery on... but I also knew she was leaving for an overnight horseback camping trip, and could not bear to think of his being in pain all weekend. 

With every movement, his bladder was hurting. 

I stayed there with him... and this was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I believe firmly if we have pets, we need to be with them to the end.  I just wish this poor little lovely guy had had more than 3 1/2 months.  Life is unfair, sometimes. 

We have changed the way we feed, and we are taking precautions so that neither of the other two wethers are victim to this.  We do not know if, when Kaycee was wethered, his urinary tract was left a little "weird" or if it was wet chicken feed, or genetic.  We just don't know. 

I cried out to several goat owners, including Michaele, his breeder, and Donna at Our Forest Haven, who were both kind enough to give me advice.  It was heartbreaking. 

How we miss his cheery little face!