Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday Fotos WARNING! WARNING!! Cute baby animals ahead:

We're heading towards Spring here in the Antipodes, and we all know what the advent of Spring brings with it, don't we ?
...apart from Hay fever
yup
lots and lots of cute newborn animals.

Lately it seems like every time I go anywhere in the car, I'm besieged on all sides by gambolling lambs and leggy calves.
I wonder if there's a limit to how much sweetness I can cope with before I lapse into a coma :]

Anyway, today Mr Bear and I went out to Emu Creek to visit Pete and Brenda, our former [ and much missed ] next-door-neighbours, and Bear's Mama Misty and litter-mate Molly.
Since moving onto larger acreage, there's been a flurry of animal acquisitions at Capricorn Cottage, and some of them were bought already in lamb/kid to expand the gene pool.

These are the Damara Ewes - probably the goatiest looking sheep on the planet [ and note the dreadlocks of matted fleece-a-la-Buffalo. These girls shed, so they don't get shorn. Unfortunately the resulting matted felted locks are totally useless for spinning ]
They were bought already in lamb to Dorper rams - another self-shedding breed - and the resultant lambies are just the cutest things.
Then three days ago one of the new nubian does gave birth to Ms Olivia.
and her slightly-smaller-sister Valerie

They have ears that are a good two inches longer than their faces and extremely prominent buck teeth - something that I'm beginning to realise must be a nubian characteristic
The babies are currently bedded down in the kitchen, and being bottle fed three hourly. I think that's Olivia to the top of the photo.


One of the original does, Ms Scarlett, was showing signs of an imminent delivery but the obtuse little bugger was determined not to do it while I was there,
Ah well. I guess that means I'll just have to go back for another visit. Gee, life's tough isn't it?

10 comments:

Blessings each day said...

OH how cute and I do love babies...every time my friend Mimi's goats would have babies, I would rush (15 miles away) over to hold and cuddle them, but Mimi only has llamas now and no babies anywhere!

Thanks for sharing these cuties!

blessings and hugs,

marcy

p.s. How come the mama isn't feeding them? No pictures of Bear's mom and sis or brother?

catsmum said...

Hi Marcy
If you leave the babies on the mama they'll take much much more milk than they actually need and get too fat which isn't considered desirable in a milking breed of goat. This way they get as much as they need and the mama can still be milked.

There are certainly more photos but I don't like putting too many in a single post in case people are on dial-up, so the rest will be in the next post [ including Bear with his mama and sister ]

Nadie said...

Nubian kids have the best ears :)

Those are some very odd looking sheep, the lambs look almost like calves.

Donna Lee said...

I love that the sheep looks like he's yelling at you. That is an overload of baby cuteness. Great pics for a Friday morning!

Bernie said...

Oh I love these baby goats, I remember going to my Aunt's farm as a child during our Spring break and saw just how beautiful the birth of a new animal was and completely fell in love with each one of them and cried when I had to go home and leave them. I love anything just newly born, they are so cute and cuddly. Looking forward to tomorrow's post Susan, thanks for sharing....:-) Hugs

Alwen said...

::whacks self in side of head to try and remember to get sheepy/goaty photos tomorrow at the fiber festival::

Kate/Massachusetts said...

Oh they are so cute!!! What beautiful critters! They do look a bit like goats!

Lucia said...

Aaaaaack! Death by cuteness!

(That orange fella is gorgeous btw. Reminds me of our dear departed Ed.)

April said...

Must. stop. reading. blogs. with. goats.

Sheepish Annie said...

Oh my good gracious! It's al I can do to not go out and buy a farm full of baby animals. I don't think that the AGK and BFK would like more siblings, though. They have a hard enough time with each other...

But wow...how cute!!!