Sables!

I finally got my Sables!  I picked up my new little doeling, Patina Eula's Dehlia Rose, and my new buck, Patina M&M Eye Candy, on October 29th.  It was a long drive from Northport to southern Maine, and I had a stop on the way.

I left around 10:00, with Magic in the horse trailer.  I figured she'd better get some training, because I was about ready to turn her into dog food otherwise.  Since I'd left the horse trailer parked in the dooryard of the barn, and had been feeding her on it for a couple of weeks, she walked right now.  We quickly closed the door and she was ticked!  She settled right down, though, probably because she had to get her balance.  I'd left her loose in the trailer, and, not unexpectedly, she faced the back.  By the time I got to Durham, and Esprit Equestrian Center, we'd been traveling for 2 hours.  Surprisingly, she walked out rather than bursting forth like a bolt of lightening.  Carol was impressed.  So was I.

Patina M&M Eye Candy  (photo by Cindi Shelley)

It took another 2 hours after I left Durham to get to Shapleigh.  Not that it should have.  It just did, what with me ambling along with a horse trailer in tow and losing my bearings every now and then.   I had meant to bring the Maine Atlas, but somehow it never made it from the car to the truck.  At least I remembered the directions I'd been given over the phone, and the phone number in case of need, and oh! there was need!  I picked up my two goats around 2:30, left Shapleigh around 3:00 (after stopping at Ted's Fried Clams for a late, lucious lunch), and headed for home.

I detoured to Thorndike to drop off the buck at the farm of an Amishman who is housing him for me, and arrived home around 7:45 (or was it later?) in pitch dark.  Shawn, bless his generous heart, carried the doeling down the lane and into the barn, where I bedded her down in deep hay, and then went back and parked the truck and trailer in the dark--no easy task when it involves backing into a side area.

Ike (photo courtesy of Cindi Shelley)

Ike (short for Eye Candy) is, from all I hear, having a great life.  The does were batting their eyes at him when we left, and he's had company every day since then.  He's a happy camper.

Patina Eula's Dehlia Rose (photo by Cindi Shelley)

Dehlia Rose had a croupy rasp in her chest and received Aconitum for that.  She's much, much better now, has a friend from the neighboring farm, a wether borrowed to keep her company.  She's a sweet thing, but very tiny compared to my kids of the same age.  She's well formed, though, and coming out of her shell a little more each day.