{"id":5328,"date":"2012-06-27T12:11:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T19:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=5328"},"modified":"2012-07-01T06:05:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T13:05:23","slug":"tina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=5328","title":{"rendered":"Tina."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some times things happen for a reason.\u00a0 Some times someone can cross your path at just the right time.\u00a0 Some times we are given a sudden and unexpected opportunity to save each other.\u00a0 And we take it.<\/p>\n

When Tina<\/a> came into our lives, we were at a breaking point.\u00a0 We had recently lost a lot of animals to illness and disease.\u00a0 Our confidence was shaken.\u00a0 Our hearts ached.\u00a0 We dreaded heading out to the barn for the morning chores, living in fear that someone else would be ailing.\u00a0 We said, as all farmers have said at one time or another in their farming lives, that we would not replace the animals we had lost.\u00a0 We would rather downsize and do without than go through the pain of more loss.\u00a0 In retrospect, taking in a crippled goat kid at that time seems like an incomprehensible decision.<\/p>\n

Tina’s front legs were severely bent and the cause was uncertain.\u00a0 A birth defect? White muscle disease?\u00a0 A serious case of contracted tendons?\u00a0 The usual treatments had already been tried without effect.\u00a0 All that was left was a last ditch attempt to splint the limbs and hope for the best.\u00a0 And since we did not have the skills or the materials for splinting, hope really was<\/em> what we were relying on.\u00a0 We had never splinted an animal on our farm.\u00a0 I had to repeatedly refer to anatomical drawings of a goat leg just to understand what bones and muscles and tendons I was dealing with.\u00a0 And although this site<\/a> was very helpful, Tina’s twisted legs looked very different and the muscles and tendons were hard to examine when covered with fur.<\/p>\n

But she dragged her legs onto our farm with a resolute spirit and a gentle heart.\u00a0 She tolerated our ministrations with a simple faith.\u00a0 She settled in with the goats and sheep, pony and pig, chickens and ducks, guardian dog and barn cat, as if she had been waiting for these friends for all of her short little life.\u00a0 And she slowly<\/a> and surely<\/a> and despite setbacks,<\/a> began to heal.<\/p>\n

The last time we took off her splints, she still seemed weak in the pasterns and tended to bend there a bit during all her movements.\u00a0 But her legs were straight and she seemed fully capable of supporting all her weight without weakness.\u00a0 Her knees no longer bowed out.\u00a0 She walked tenderly, carefully, but she did walk.\u00a0 Wherever she wanted to go.\u00a0 I was hesitant to put on more splints because I wanted her muscles to strengthen and knew they never would if they always had splints to assist them.\u00a0 I was hesitant to leave the splints off for fear that her pasterns would weaken, her legs would bow, and she would go back to bad form.\u00a0 I was stymied.<\/p>\n

So I did what all farmers do.\u00a0 I called another farmer and had her come over and look.\u00a0 Tina’s previous owner arrived early one morning and examined Tina’s new legs.\u00a0 She palpated the muscles and tendons.\u00a0 She watched Tina walk around the barn and climb on pallets and held Tina on her lap.\u00a0 She said that, to her, the legs looked great and just needed to get stronger.\u00a0 She didn’t find the leg deformity or the bend at the pasterns alarming.\u00a0 With an ear scratch and a kiss on Tina’s head she resolved our consternation.\u00a0 Leave her be.\u00a0 Let her walk without the splints and see what happens.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it funny how the opinion of a good friend can clarify a confusing issue with a swift and sure stroke?\u00a0 Sometimes we just to need hear someone tell us that we’re doing fine in order to believe it.\u00a0 And sometimes when someone says, “I think it will be OK,”, it really will be.<\/p>\n

Because Tina is definitely OK.<\/p>\n

She climbs onto the picnic table to spend the day lounging in the sun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She gets onto the milk stand and assumes the position that she sees all the other ladies take–gobbling grain as fast as she can.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She climbs on the hay bale, even though it is not allowed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She hikes to the top of the root ball of the big downed tree in the woods.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She runs up to the barn so quickly at dinner time that she is just a blur.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She browses down low.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She browses up high.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She stands easily on the sloped side of the dam.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She can jump so high that she jumps right out of the the camera frame.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In essence, she does everything that all the other goats do.\u00a0 And you would never know that she started out like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, there are still some things about her that are different.<\/p>\n

The metacarpus bones in her front legs are turned to the side so her phalanges face out instead of forward.\u00a0 The turn appears to take place at the carpus or knee area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

I don’t know why.\u00a0 If I had to guess I’d say it was caused by incompetent splinting.\u00a0 Although there’s some possibility that the way her legs bowed out caused the bones to twist.\u00a0 Whatever the cause, it doesn’t affect her movements at all.<\/p>\n

She is also the oldest baby to get a bottle on our farm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Goat kids are allowed to nurse for as long as they live here with their dams.\u00a0 But bottle babies that come from other farms are weaned by 6 weeks old.\u00a0 Bottle feeding is good for bonding with new animals.\u00a0 But warming and carrying bottles back and forth to the barn gets old fast.\u00a0 Plus, it cuts down on the milk for our family.\u00a0 Tina, however, still gets a bottle twice a day at almost 5 months old.\u00a0 We feel like the extra calcium and protein is beneficial as long as her bones and muscles are still growing.<\/p>\n

And although Tina hangs out with the goat herd, she is also very close to the sheep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She and the lambs were raised together in the kidding barn when they were smaller.\u00a0 So you can often find them curled up asleep together.\u00a0 Or wandering together in the blackberry brambles.\u00a0 Or rubbing noses and faces in greeting.\u00a0 If I had to anthropomorphize, I’d say she thinks they are her brothers.<\/p>\n

But what is most unique about Tina is the way she sits in your lap.\u00a0 Whenever you sit down, she comes over, throws her front legs in your lap and rests her head against your chest.\u00a0 She does it if you sit at the picnic table.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She does it if you sit on the well cap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She does it when you sit at the milk stand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She does it even if someone else is already in your lap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I suppose she does it for attention.\u00a0 Or maybe she spent so long with us holding her, her legs across our laps to put on splints, or adjust splints, or take off splints, that she thinks it is expected.<\/p>\n

But I have to say that what it really seems like….what it really feels like….is not a plea for attention or a habit born of endless splinting.\u00a0 It really seems like….a goat hug.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe we will be sorry if she continues to do this when she is a full grown 120lb Toggenburg doe.\u00a0 Maybe not.\u00a0 Maybe her hugs will always remind us of the time when taking in Tina restored the balance to our farm.\u00a0 When her success was what we needed to recover from all that failure.\u00a0 When, while we were in the process of saving her, she saved us.\u00a0 Good job, Tina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some times things happen for a reason.\u00a0 Some times someone can cross your path at just the right time.\u00a0 Some times we are given a sudden and unexpected opportunity to save each other.\u00a0 And we take it. When Tina came into our lives, we were at a breaking point.\u00a0 We had recently lost a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5328"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5370,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions\/5370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}