Queen Mum's Dancing in the Rain

Queen Mum

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Houdini is a Mini LaMancha.

Houdini3.jpg


He stands about 14 inches tall at the shoulder. He weighs about 30 pounds.

He is named Houdini because he is known to be able to escape any fence, any pen, at will. He loves to roam around. He's a bit wild and a free spirit.
Mama.jpg


Mama is a HUGE Alpine dairy goat. She stands 36 inches plus at the shoulder and weighs in excess of 250 pounds. She is a herd queen of exceptional intelligence. But she is gentle and sweet to people and very wise. She is a fierce herd queen and a firm disciplinarian. Mama has a fancy registered name, but is called Mama, because she loves having babies and when not bred will steal a baby from a neglectful mother goat (by force if need be) and nurse it (coming immediately into milk). She mothers everything. Puppies, children, baby deer... She will defend her herd to the death and has nearly given her life to that cause twice.

Brownie, is Mama's great grand daughter. She is part 1/4 Nubian, 1/4 Alpine and 1/2 Oberhauslie. She lives in the paddock with Mama. She lost her mother to a bear when she was a wee baby. She weighs about 100 pounds and is 6 months old. She's about 30 inches tall and has a long way to grow.
Brownie2.jpg


One day, Houdini wandered into Mama's paddock and decided that he liked the food in there. And he was smitten with Mama. Well, regular meals, plenty of food. No competition for the does. What virile buck wouldn't find satisfaction in that paddock. And Mama's paddock was surrounded by the pens of the only other doe pens where the does weren't bred yet. Girls everywhere. Ripe for the picking. The only problem is that all those does are Boer goats.

They stand at the fence when they are in heat and call seductively to Houdini and wag their fluffy little tails at him. And he puffs up his little chest and stands on a tire and blows raspberries and makes eyes at them for HOURS!

But the real object of his most fond affections, wants NOTHING to do with him!

Mama rolls him down the hill if he comes anywhere near her. Poor Houdini. :barnie
 

Ms. Research

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Enjoyed your introduction of some of your herd members. It's amazing how the different personalities and breeds mesh together to be a content herd. And who becomes the Herd Leader. Mama, as Herd Leader, looks very regal in her pic, and sounds loving, but in times makes her message clear. :)
 

Queen Mum

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Houdini is very aloof with me but he follows Mama everywhere. He preens for her and blows raspberries at her and murmurs to her. She ignores him and chases him off. I've been working to get him to come into the barn. I started by putting a bucket of feed outside the door. He would sneak in while I was milking and gobble it up as fast as he could. I just kept moving it into the barn farther and farther.

I had to tie Brownie up to keep her from eating his feed, and hers too, but it worked. Finally one day, he got his courage up and marched all the way into the barn where Brownie was eating and started munching away in her trough. Her pan is right next to the milking stand.

Finally, Houdini got more bold. He started pushing her away from her own feed trough and eating her feed. I had to untie her so she could get something to eat.

Now he stands at the gate at milking time, wagging his little tail and hollering for dinner. I have to put a bucket between my feet while I milk so Brownie can get her share. Several days ago, Houdini had gobbled up all of his feed and came over and put his head into Brownies bucket to eat. I put my hand on his shoulder and he ran away immediately. The next day, he just stood there.

Then yesterday, I scratched his back and he didn't notice for a few minutes and arched his back as if he was thoroughly enjoying a good scratch. Suddenly, he looked up and realized I was the one scratching, and panicked and ran out of the barn as fast as his little legs would carry him.

This morning, while I was milking he eyed me warily when he put his head in Brownie's bucket. But I put my hand on his back anyway. I gave him a quick scratch and he ran out of the barn but not quite as fast as he had yesterday. He came right back in immediately and looked at me a couple times. Brownie head butted him out of her bucket.

I think we have some progress.

Maybe if I can conquer Houdini's fear of me, then I can start trying to coax Hobbit to join him in the paddock.

This is Hobbit:

Hobbit.jpg


She's about Houdini's size and is always running around loose. She needs a herd.
 

Queen Mum

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Oh dear, trouble at the Queens house. My housemates are difficult to live with and lately even more so. Both of them are senior citizens, fiercely independent and somewhat difficult to reason with when in distress.

We have quite a few elderly cats and dogs as well as goats, so the place is like an old folks home for pets here. With that comes the unavoidable loss of animals from attrition. The usual practice is to cremate the animals, because the land here is solid limestone. Digging graves is extremely difficult. Unfortunately due to the long severe drought in Texas, the animals have been kept in the deep freeze for a long time. Recently we've had a lot of deaths and thus, the freezer is full!

The problem is that the both the lady of the house and the man of the house suffer terribly with each loss. And the man of the house gets very upset because he is one who has to dispose of the bodies. I have offered to help with this chore and been turned down flat! Not only have I been rebuked for offering to help put the animals down, but my offer to help dig a trench to bury the animals has been met with nearly violent refusal by the husband for trying to "one up" him.

These are his pets, you see, and my guess is he feels that any help from outside doesn't honor them. At least that is the only explanation I can think of...

He doesn't handle grief well... Sigh!
 

Queen Mum

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You know this cute little icon? :weee I need one with the little guy running around and pulling out handfuls of hair and screaming! Gah!
Dancing_unhappy.gif
or maybe this one?
maniac.gif
 

Queen Mum

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When I was a kid, my father nicknamed me Powerful Katinka. Strong, sturdy looking, muscular. I was stubborn as well. Houdini reminds me of that. A couple of days ago, Houdini was not in the Mama paddock. He had worked his way out of her pen by head butting a part of the fence over and over again till it broke. Then he dug his way out. Little stinker! Well, this morning he wanted his breakfast, as usual, but wouldn't come in the paddock. SO today, I put my foot down. I grabbed him by his little stinker horns and put a collar on him and carried him back to the paddock. When I grabbed him he put up SUCH A FUSS! He started screaming like I was choking him. "Oh my god, I can't breath, this collar is choking me, I'm choking, I'm choking!"

I set him down in the pen, still holding him firmly but gently and we had an eye to eye talk. He was clearly NOT terrified, but very defiant. I said, "Houdini, I am the boss goat. Queen Mum. I am your Herd Queen Mum. Mama is the queen. You may eat in MY barn. You MUST sleep in MY barn. (pet, pet.) You may wander around outside of the paddock when I GIVE YOU PERMISSION. (scratch, scratch) (I gave him a treat, which he deigned to nibble out of my hand.) Then you WILL come back to the paddock. GOT IT!" I'm quite sure he didn't understand a word of it but I know he understood my tone.

I let him go and he tried to run away, but I still had the magic collar and rope on him. He screamed like he was choking again and I picked him up and held him snugly and petted him and gave him a treat and let him down again. He walked away with dignity then turned around and came and got another treat and let me scratch his back. I took off the collar and he let me scratch his back. He stalked off and laid in his corner. I fixed the fence.

Silly boy, he is only 14 inches tall.
 

simplynewt

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Wow Sara, I really like your pictures and your journal. I am sorry to hear that your assistance is not welcomed where you are at and prayerfully that will change for the good.

Houdinin is an awesome looking young lad. I cant imagine him head butting a fence until his freedom is gained but I suppose if you had all day to do something and set your mind to it, anything is possible.

Thank you for the enjoyable read and I look forward to more of your postings.
 

Queen Mum

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Houdini is named because he can escape anything. He has met his match. ME.

Today one of Mama's kids, Flash Bangs got into the paddock with him. Mama, as I mentioned is 36 inches at the shoulder and her kids are very large. They were born back in June. Here is Flash Bangs!

FlashBangs.jpg


He is almost as tall as Mama. The funny thing is, Flash Bangs lives up with the bucks, but he is still very much a baby. He has a baby face and is not really a buck yet. Today he was flirting with the girls across the fence. Six HUGE boer goats. And Houdini, the Casanova of the yard, took exception and challenged Flash Bangs to a duel. Usually Flash Bangs runs away from a fight up in the buck yard, but I guess he thought he could 'take' Houdini since that little guy weighs maybe 30 pounds to his 130. The game was on.

Flash Bangs was out matched! Houdini was knocking Flash Bangs around pretty good. At one point Flash Bangs had Houdini by the head between his horns and lifted him up off the ground. Houdini did some kind of twisting thing and got his hind legs on the ground and brought Flash Bangs to his knees. Then he popped up and rolled him over and pushed with sheer muscle to move Flash Bangs across the yard about 5 feet. He didn't hurt him, he just made him understand that he wasn't going to put up with that young whippersnapper messing with his girls. He turned to go back to the girls and Flash Bangs foolishly got up and got back at it. I had to drag Flash Bangs out of the paddock because the fight was going on and on.

Houdini is only about a year old, but he is one TOUGH LITTLE BUCK!
 

simplynewt

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LOL... I would guess so with head butting fences to get out.

How did the name Flash Bangs come about?
 
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