Away... Away...

I've been somewhat away from the internet lately but have not forgotten my blog. And to make up for my absence (which I rather doubt anyone was honestly worried) I will attempt to make a long entertaining post. If it isn't, you can boo me later in the comments.

Spring has sprung at my house and my sister's goats have near doubled their numbers. We now have eleven bouncing babies, six of which are male. If you have never cuddled a baby goat before you are missing out. They are soft and made to fit in you arms. I was fortunate enough to spend a whole week with them over Spring Break and enjoy their antics.

This is Jamie and her triplets. Only two have names so far, I think. Copper and Skulduggery, the boys. There's a story behind Dug's name, but I'll get to that later.

This is Holly, one of the cutest by far just for her coloration. Finally a little doe with striking colors!

And this is Bill (left) and Conan. Conan is the biggest of all the kids, thus the name 'Conan'.

Above I said there was a story behind the name of 'Skulduggery' for one. While I would like to say he was named after the amazing skeleton detective from Derek Landy's novels (of which only three have been released in America *cough cough*), I can say that the idea did. Anyways, proceeding with the tale:

The babies were only about four or so days old and were still remaining to a great extent in the main pen near our house while their mothers took to the field to graze. Sometimes a baby would follow their mom out, but they would always come home with her to the safety of the pen. The moms all came up to feed their babies when I heard one mother repeatedly "maaa"ing. I hadn't done a head count yet that day so I walked over and started. I only got to ten babies. I was missing one. I checked every nook and cranny of the entire pen from top to bottom because the babies are very good at hiding themselves and randomly appearing. My search was in vain.

About here is where the panic starts to set in. This is a very small four day old baby and any number of predators can pick it off, even hawks. Yes. The larger hawks can snatch up little baby goats. And something likes to take a goose every now and then as well, a fox or bobcat we presume. So my mom and I take off into the cow field as fast as we can, me with a posse of dogs. The first thing one of our dogs does is sprint all the way across the field to the barn and look at me as if waiting for me to catch up. This little lab rat, Yogi, is known for his tracking skills among our dogs, so his interest in this pursuit worries me. Luckily, he was only going to go chase down whatever wanders in the neighbor's yard at night, so the baby was not in distress wherever it was.

Five minutes or so of searching later and a million little "Please St. Anthony and St. Francis let me find this baby safe" prayers later, I find him nestled against a bush. Sleeping. And just as if he was a child, I picked him up and could only feel relief. I held him over my head triumphantly, much like a Tuskan Raider holding his gun over his head, so my mom could see that he was found. I brought him back to his nanny goat, who was just as relieved as me, and dubbed him Skulduggery for worrying us all. The end.

On a side note, I have not really been working on my books too much. Please remain calm. I have you guys to remind me, right? ...right? *ahem* Anyway, I'm hoping to get a move on it again soon, even though I am currently reviewing and critiquing my dear sister's work. And I'm at a bit of a standstill in mine. Hopefully summer will supply ample writing time and I will get oodles and oodles done... and then work on publishing... If and when I get closer I'll start to give you snippets. But I think I will start to post stuff about my Random Idea on deviantART where it can have its own nice little folder.

And also check out my 'Something FUN!' page. No one has posted anything yet. (sadness)