Kuiper Delivers

What is Alice staring at so intensely across the barn on the afternoon of March 8?

It’s Kuiper, delivering a beautiful doeling, Eris

 who took considerable effort to get out, with Kuiper pushing and Barb doing the coordinated pulling

 Unwilling to let Cheeky outdo her in productivity, Kuiper then delivered a handsome chamoise buckling 

 Ice Ice Baby (Chill is his sire and Ice Man is his grandsire)

 and then another doeling, Haumea, practically identical to the first

 for an impressive total of 26.5 pounds worth of kids

 

 who were soon up and about

 and reminiscing about the good old days in the womb.

 At bed check early the next morning they were snoozing together

 under the watchful eye of mom

and getting cuter as the day went on.

The kids showed some weakness in the ankles at first (perhaps from cramping inside the womb)

but within a few days

they were on track for normal development.

Kuiper is an attentive momma.  Here she smiles during some quality time with Ice

who loves to nuzzle her neck.

The babies survived the dreaded disbudding ordeal; Eris bled a bit after, but was soon patched up by Barb.

Across the barn Alice's boys are growing apace

and love zipping in one door and out the other.

Draco poses

and checks out the feeding dishes

while brother Polaris checks out the girls next door

who are themselves growing "like corn in the night" (Thoreau's phrase)

from all that bottle feeding.

The kids get to romp periodically all over the barn

(Kuiper reminds them about using their "indoor voices")

and demonstrate their Alpine heritage by climbing on all elevated surfaces,

which sometimes includes Barb:

As usual MeadowWild is awash in similar looking black and white goats, who confuse even their moms when they're all running around.

We’re considering sports-style jerseys with different colors for each team (Alice’s Offspring, Cheeky’s Children, Kuiper’s Kidlets)

and names and numbers to identify the individual players.

And in non-goat news:

Many people maintain that cats are averse to training.

Dustin says, “Hold my beer.”

He has Steve trained perfectly.  When Dustin jumps up on the computer stand, that means

“Brush me NOW

especially under the ears and along the chin.”

When he takes over the office chair, that means

it’s time to battle the brush 

and chew its head off.

When he positions himself on the desk,

“I’ll take my daily Temptations treats -- NOW.”

And when he retreats to his office

Do Not Disturb.

To a certain extent, Dustin has Barb trained, too.  When he wants to raise her blood pressure precipitously, he simply hops up on the kitchen counters.

He rejects the label Bad Cat

and doesn't anticipate radical changes in his behavior any time soon.

As he points out: