Fred Is a Man

And he's going to stay that way. The family jewels, as you can see in all their glory, shall remain intact.


Fred's new owners have decided that he is a real stud and thus will be pimping him out to the goat ladies who might need a bit of courting. All I can say is that he will be very good at his new career if the amount of humping he performs on a daily basis is any indication of  future job success (I will hopefully have video for you all next week).  I'm actually a bit concerned with all the mating behavior as male goats can become fertile as early as seven weeks. This isn't as much a concern for Ginger - she won't reach sexual maturity until seven months - but for the two adults in the herd. Thankfully, Fred has shown no interest in humping his mother and so far he isn't big enough to tackle Ethel. But he is growing fast. A couple weeks ago, both Lucy and Ethel were in heat and Fred spent half the day sniffing Ethel's backside and then throwing his head in the air with lips curled back, baring teeth, and sucking air in and out at a metered pace. At first I though he was doing his best imitation of Mister Ed until I realized that this is normal behavior for a male to determine whether or not a doe is in heat. God, he is such a man!

These aren't the only sexually dimorphic traits he has been acquiring. He's developing quite a bucky smell that you can't easily wash off your hands. And check out the start of his beard.

Ten weeks old and he has facial hair! They grow up so fast, don't they? And he headbutts anything. A fist.

The camera.

His sister's head.



No matter. It's all good. Despite all his macho manliness, he is still a baby who whines like a toddler for a little suckle on his mama's teat and then happily curls up for a nap with the family.

In other goat news, Ethel has been sent off to her farm of origin to be bred to an odd looking fellow named Flap Jack. He has the longest, shaggiest black hair I have ever seen on a buck and horns that swirl up and around in a pompadour. She should end up with some interesting looking offspring.

As many loyal readers will have noticed, we are on vacation in Nebraska for the Thanksgiving holiday while our super fabulous goat doula friend Monica and her family will be looking after the brood. Both her and her husband, Declan, grew up on farms in Ireland. Can't wait to hear about Declan's attempt to milk the goat sans milking machine. Should be a gas.