Rest in Peace Sooty Toots...

Once upon a time, a long long time ago I got my first little orphan wild goat kid, it would have been 2001.  Little Lilly Bing was so cute, got old old photos of her snuggled up in front of the fire, of her standing on my back, more personality than many of my dogs if I'm completely honest.  I lost her last year or the year before, not sure exactly when anymore, it was recorded on FB and well, we all know what happened to all of that!!!  She would have been about 16.  She hailed from East Lane, Kekerengu way.

A couple of years after I got Lilly we obtained Sooty who was about 10 mths old by the time she came to us.  Her owners had got her as a wee orphan when her mother was shot, they lived and worked on Molesworth Station but when they shifted into town they got hold of me and I took on goat #2.

The third of the Billy goats gruff (except they were all females) was Izzy Bee.  She too was only about a year old when she got rehomed to us, she was a spoiled little Wairau Valley orphan and must be close to Marcus's age, so maybe 12 now?  She quickly became a stroppy bitch in the paddock and used to give Marcus assholes.  She has been rather unbalanced in her hormones for a good few years now and after Lilly Bing died, she became the undisputed queen of the paddock.  She never gave ME assholes, but anybody else out there was fair game.  She has a HUGE lump in her throat and sometimes she struggles to eat and can't fit her tongue in her mouth and a couple of times now she has randomly dropped out nearly her whole coat.  Certainly not the most healthy specimen in the paddock.  To the point I actually got my darling neighbour to dig me a hole about 18mths ago because I didn't think she would get thru the winter back then!  But the bitch rallied and is still here, hole still there too!  More recently she's been bloody aggro to Sooty and yesterday it just went far too far.... :(

I went out to shift tape for the horses and Sooty was lying in the grass only a couple of metres away from their tape, flat out on her side, not moving.  I thought she was dead, but she wasn't.  One horn had been torn right off and was just a bleeding inside part stump left, her head was tilted right back like she had lockjaw and she couldn't get up.  Marcus and I carried her into the back yard by the garage, put her in the shelter there, put Abby's old cover over her 'cause she was cold and shivering and left her safe at least.

This morning she was no better, head still stuck back with a stiff neck and she cried out a few times (she HATES being alone) and it was not a pretty call, she was in pain and still couldn't move or get up, so she was put in the back of the car and she was taken to the vet to end that pain and suffering for my timid old soft natured Sooty who only liked to be touched once a year when she was shedding her winter coat and would want me to pull out the tufts of cashmere for her...

She is now in Izzy's hole, but parked beside her best friend Lilly Bing.  Rest easy my girl, you didn't want much to do with me, ever, but I will miss you in the paddock sweety.

It got me thinking how many goodbyes I've had to make since I've been down in Blenheim.... seems like way too many but I guess that comes with time passing and having lots of babies :( 

Might do that list... maybe...