Eclipse & Cheeky Deliver

 The thermometer plunged to minus 23 on March 5th, three days before Eclipse was due to deliver.

 It warmed over the next few days, though,

 as Barb exercised the mothers-to-be on the front driveway

 

 and checked on them every few hours each night by the light of a full moon

 to make sure any new arrivals would be dried off and warmed before their ears froze.

Eclipse kept us waiting one day past her due date

but then at 9:30 a.m. on March 9, without indicating that delivery was imminent, pushed out 2 adorable bucklings when no one was looking.

They were up on shaky legs within minutes and getting a good licking.

 

 

Fortunately, the temp soared to 51 that day (16 degrees above average), so freezing was not a problem.

 

The newbies cleaned up nicely and lost that initial "drowned puppy" look.

Cheeky in the adjacent pen was so fascinated by Eclipse's pair

that she released her own triplets (2 doelings & a buckling) four hours later.

First one out was easy, but Barb assisted with the other deliveries.  The third was a breech-birth girl a little smaller than her womb-mates.

They are all carbon copies of Cheeky and papa Mojo, and were up and nursing in no time.

Four a.m. bedcheck on the second day revealed that everyone was doing fine

and by the third day they were exploring the barn

(on legs that still occasionally give out:

meeting the other residents

starting to climb

and even refueling outside.