Zach joined 4-H in 2003 and quickly decided to do the goat project - at that point, he didn't know what kind of goat - just goat. A friend of mine in Baker City, Oregon had a daughter who was also in 4-H and was raising Nubian dairy goats - she sent us a few photos of babies they had available. From those photos, Zach picked Chi-Chi and we brought her home when she was a week old. They were a good fit - both stubborn! They eventually bonded and became an excellant team. Chi Chi didn't settle for kids in 2008 and Zach got busy doing other things - so we were really excited to get her bred for this year and Aaron was excited about showing her. In her year off, she really matured and hit her stride, becoming a big, deep bodied doe who freshened with a fabulous udder. Unfortunately, it was a very difficult delievery of triplets. Two were breech and I managed to deliver them myself with one surviving. However there was a third, very large buck kid who had his neck turned back - after much work, the vet did get that kid out though he had already died. Over the next days, Chi-Chi was sore and somewhat lame - understandable after that kind of trauma. However, after two weeks she was not improving - while still eating and drinking, she was spending more and more time down. Another trip to the vet showed us that her pelvis was dislocated - possibly something she could have learned to live with. However, she had also developed a hernia under her tail which was pushing her rectum to the other side - I did locate a vet who was willing to try to fix it though he said it would be "complicated". Friday morning, May 8th, as I watched her struggle to stand, I realized that stitches and any repair would never survive her awkward attempts to get up and down. Sadly, I made the decision to send her on her way over that fabled Rainbow Bridge. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. She made that final trip with grace and dignity, in fact, she even wanted to be milked that morning - I obliged, loved on her and told her "That'll do goat. That'll do". We do still have her first two daughter and her last - they are as beautiful as their mother was and she lives on in them.
