A Love Story

Bonnie & Junie B. Jones.
It is cute how the kids look like their mom even if their coloring is completely different.
These two are inseparable. 

We made the decision to allow the kids we keep to stay with their mothers as soon as we got goats and saw the amazing closeness among families. This means we get less milk at evening milking since the kids enjoy drinking throughout the day, but it is worth the trade off for us to see them all together. At night all the kids go in one pen together and the mothers enjoy a break. That leaves plenty of morning milk for us. 

This was the arrangement until this week when our little goat Junie B. Jones, now eight months old, decided she had a different plan in mind. Just recently she has developed the trick of jumping out of her pen in the morning and evening as we are delivering grain. Because she was the smallest of our kids, she is spoiled and feels she should get her breakfast and dinner first! The other night, she did not go back in with the other kids after she ate. I was a little worried she would get stuck out in the barn so later in the evening I went out and found that she had jumped into the pen with her mom and Don Pedro (he is a wether who has been Bonnie's friend and stall mate since we got them as kids). They were curled up together in a little ball, enjoying the visit. Every night now she does the same trick of sneaking in with her mother after we have shut off the lights and closed the barn door. 

As I prepare to let my oldest daughter head off to college in six months, I must admit I found this especially touching. There is a pull between mother and daughter that defies any walls of space or time, a connection which no one can sever. Because I think part of the fun is that Junie thinks she is being naughty, I will still put her in with the kids each night and delight each morning when I find her stretching into the day next to her mom. Why not keep kids close for as long as they want to be with us? I am savoring each moment I get with Lila for sure! Animals provide the simplest reminder of what is right and good in the world.