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Description
A baby goat (kid) whose mother rejected at birth because she had triplets - this does not happen often; a doe (female goat) typically only gives birth to twins.

I took care of Pete (the kid) for a time until he could eat solid food and live on his own with the rest of the herd on the farm - the farm I helped to take care of during my undergraduate studies as a pre-veterinary medicine major. He was adorable, but having to bottle feed him every three hours certainly impacted the amount of sleep I could get each night and certainly made staying awake in my classes and studying more difficult - but it was worth it to help raise this innocent kid until he could take care of himself.

During the day I would drop him off at the farm for him to mingle and play with the other kids there and so that the farm hands on staff for the day could feed him while I attended my classes. Every evening I would pick him up from the farm and bring him to my dorm (shhhhh ha ha), where he would spend the night with me. It was definitely a unique experience for me. And yes, Pete was adorable, but oh my goodness could he be a pain in the butt ha ha. Especially when he would bleat so loudly to wake me up if he got hungry before my alarm that was set for every three hours went off to feed him. It was during those times that keeping him a secret from the RA's and the building manager was the most difficult (animals where not allowed in the dorms). Also, he was often so impatient when I was preparing his bottle that he would try and find whatever he thought was a teat on me and try to suckle (sometimes embarrassing and often a little painful) - and if suckling didn't work he would just headbutt me in impatience, usually jarring me and creating a mess of preparing the bottle.

He also had a love of head-butting me whenever possible - making my friends laugh hysterically and occasionally giving me a headache ha ha. The most memorable headbutt of his was when I took a couple of my friends to the farm during the day one time to introduce them to Pete. I picked Pete up and held him like the baby he was (but the appropriate handling for a baby goat, not a baby human where they're held belly-up). As I was holding Pete and introducing him to my friends he decided to rear his head way back and headbutt me right on my own head! He did this twice before I put him down. My friends thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a long time and looking back I suppose I have to agree with them. Oh silly Pete - he should have been more grateful to me, the little stinker. Being a goat, even baby one, his head is hard! Those headbutts hurt, darn it!

Nowadays, Pete spends his time at a petting zoo. Because he was raised by a humans (me and often enough a few others who would volunteer to take him for a night or two), he made a good petting zoo addition. I was thankful for this as well because as Pete was a boy (and therefore not reproduce). The farm only needs one male goat on the premises for breeding purposes; the other males are usually sold to other farms or, more likely than not, sent to slaughter. That is just the harsh reality of an operating farm. Animal science students, like I was, either learn to accept this reality or wash out.

As far as I know, to this day Pete still spends his day at the petting zoo that one of the professors worked at. He was the lucky kid who won the hearts of enough people that we persuaded the head of the farm to not send Pete to slaughter. So now he is a much loved goat at a petting zoo with plenty of children to admire him and a food fence between him and them to prevent headbutting ha ha.

Description
A baby goat (kid) whose mother rejected at birth because she had triplets - this does not happen often; a doe (female goat) typically only gives birth to twins.

I took care of Pete (the kid) for a time until he could eat solid food and live on his own with the rest of the herd on the farm - the farm I helped to take care of during my undergraduate studies as a pre-veterinary medicine major. He was adorable, but having to bottle feed him every three hours certainly impacted the amount of sleep I could get each night and certainly made staying awake in my classes and studying more difficult - but it was worth it to help raise this innocent kid until he could take care of himself.

During the day I would drop him off at the farm for him to mingle and play with the other kids there and so that the farm hands on staff for the day could feed him while I attended my classes. Every evening I would pick him up from the farm and bring him to my dorm (shhhhh ha ha), where he would spend the night with me. It was definitely a unique experience for me. And yes, Pete was adorable, but oh my goodness could he be a pain in the butt ha ha. Especially when he would bleat so loudly to wake me up if he got hungry before my alarm that was set for every three hours went off to feed him. It was during those times that keeping him a secret from the RA's and the building manager was the most difficult (animals where not allowed in the dorms). Also, he was often so impatient when I was preparing his bottle that he would try and find whatever he thought was a teat on me and try to suckle (sometimes embarrassing and often a little painful) - and if suckling didn't work he would just headbutt me in impatience, usually jarring me and creating a mess of preparing the bottle.

He also had a love of head-butting me whenever possible - making my friends laugh hysterically and occasionally giving me a headache ha ha. The most memorable headbutt of his was when I took a couple of my friends to the farm during the day one time to introduce them to Pete. I picked Pete up and held him like the baby he was (but the appropriate handling for a baby goat, not a baby human where they're held belly-up). As I was holding Pete and introducing him to my friends he decided to rear his head way back and headbutt me right on my own head! He did this twice before I put him down. My friends thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a long time and looking back I suppose I have to agree with them. Oh silly Pete - he should have been more grateful to me, the little stinker. Being a goat, even baby one, his head is hard! Those headbutts hurt, darn it!

Nowadays, Pete spends his time at a petting zoo. Because he was raised by a humans (me and often enough a few others who would volunteer to take him for a night or two), he made a good petting zoo addition. I was thankful for this as well because as Pete was a boy (and therefore not reproduce). The farm only needs one male goat on the premises for breeding purposes; the other males are usually sold to other farms or, more likely than not, sent to slaughter. That is just the harsh reality of an operating farm. Animal science students, like I was, either learn to accept this reality or wash out.

As far as I know, to this day Pete still spends his day at the petting zoo that one of the professors worked at. He was the lucky kid who won the hearts of enough people that we persuaded the head of the farm to not send Pete to slaughter. So now he is a much loved goat at a petting zoo with plenty of children to admire him and a food fence between him and them to prevent headbutting ha ha.