Monday, May 11, 2015

Pedicures and foot trimming

'I don'wanna get my feet trimmed! no!no!no!no!'
It was six in the morning, out in the goat barn.  The stanchion was in place and the girls were lined up to get their feet trimmed.  Goat hooves, like toe nails, grow continuously and need to be periodically trimmed.  Most of the time the girls are very good about it, going into the stanchion one-at-a-time, no issues, no complaints, easy peasie.  not this morning.
Fluffy was first.  She's my no-drama-mama.  Give her pats.  tell her she's a good girl.  a handful of sweet feed and we're good.
 
The twins wanted to come in together.  That's NOT going to happen.  The last thing you need is Ms BusyNose bugging her sister as she's getting her pedicure.  After a minor rodeo to separate them, Dorothy was up and ready.
Franny banged at the gate, 'I wanna come in!  I don't like this! I want my sister!'  Each time she bleated, Dorothy wanted to see what she was doing.   We would stop trimming to get her quieted down again, pick up the trimmers, snip-snip, and Franny would bleat again.  Repeat this dance four or five times per foot.
Next was Franny's turn.  Dorothy pranced out of the stall and Franny raced in, only to hear the gate close behind her.
'I don'wanna get my feet trimmed! no!no!no!no!' With a little wrestling, I managed to get her up into the stanchion.  A couple of handfuls of sweet feed and all was forgiven.  Dorothy watched quietly at the gate as her sister was positioned.  Franny stood in there like she had been glued to the floor.  I would start to pick up a foot and she would shift her weight onto that leg.  When I did manage to get it up, she would lean hard into me.  Trimming a foot is hard enough without an additional 130 lbs leaning into you.  Periodically she would decide that you've been working on that one long enough and she'd pull and shake and shake and pull to get that foot out of your grasp.
'Just because you've had enough doesn't mean we're done,' I said softly to her.  'We'll be done quicker if you'd just stand still.'   Dorothy murmured a soft, 'Mhhaaf.' and Franny quit jumping about.  A few minutes later Franny was ready to join her sister.
All the while the girls were getting their feet trimmed, Ms Jellybean wailed, 'Why do they get all the attention?  Wadda 'bout me?  When do I get to play?  When do I get sweet feed?'  Of course as soon as she was set up, she wanted down.  'Whatcha doing?  why are you poking at my feet?  I want more sweet feed!  where's Daddy?'  She danced around in the stanchion while I attempted to finish.
Finally after an hour and a half, everyone was done and set up with her breakfast.  Or so I thought.  As soon as I opened the gate, everyone rushed back in where the stanchion was set up.

No amount of calling was going to get them outside.  I pushed.  They pushed back.  I called.  They just laughed (nah-nah-na-nah-nahhhh!).  I then remembered the magic word.
'Anyone who wants a cookie come with me!'
'Cookie??? did Mom say Cookie?'  All the girls were heads up and all came prancing.
Never a dull moment.

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