The setting: Last Friday (2/6) I was working down at the barn. A beautiful day.Recently I've posted several photos and a video about our new group of kids (baby goats). We marvel at their timing. It seems that the nannies wait until the coldest night of the year to deliver. Crazy. Anyways....the weather has been nice for the past week and the kids were all doing well.
So this particular morning I'm down at the barn working and discover a baby goat laying rigid on the ground. I figured the worst. Come to find out that he was on the verge of death. Eyes were already rolled up in his head....limbs all stiff....but there was a faint heartbeat and shallow breath. It is typical for one or two to die when a new group comes along. I tend to get attached to animals really easy. Especially babies. I hated to see this little guy in the state he was in.
So I carried him out of the barn and laid him next to my truck. He started into convulsions. I knew this little guys was a fighter. So I began to pray for him and ask God to help him live if he is to live. While I was praying I had a thought that he hadn't eaten in a long time. That's why he was in the shape he was in. *Sometimes nannies will cull out weaker/sickly kids and allow them to die....I don't know how they know...but they do*. I was fine with him dying if there was something wrong with him. So I kept praying for him. He began to struggle more. Then I had the thought to force feed him some goat milk. Over the next 3 hours I milked goats and dripped the milk into his mouth periodically. He would struggle and cry out. Go into convulsions. I just kept praying and working.
So 3 hours later I walk out to the truck and he's sitting up. I was on fire! I knew then that he had been indeed culled out and intentionally unfed by his mother. His mother is a smaller nannie who has never had babies before....so therefore she's not as developed as the older nannies and unable to produce as much milk. She chose between her two babies. She chose the smaller of the two.
I went back to milking goats and he took a little more and a little more. In an hour he was standing on his own. Within 3 more hours he was up...walking around....and wagging his little tail. Now 3 times a day I bottle feed little Frodo. I so named him because of his circumstance.
I learned an important lesson here. When I prayed for little Frodo I prayed that God would do what He thought best. I did what I could do...but at the end of the day Frodos care was in God's hands. I know Frodo is just a little goat.....seemingly unimportant......but he's important to me. And I give God the glory for his life.
