Latte, Barn Girl, and Jones

As usual we spend alot of time up in the barn with our animals. I like that they all feel so comfortable with us that they don't run from us when we come near, that they will allow us to pet them, handle their feet, eat from our hands, and even fall asleep beside us.

One really neat thing that I've come to notice is that our llamas won't stand up from a kush if we walk by them anymore. That's a big sign of trust, for sure.
And Cataleya will know allow me to rub her belly and legs, and even handle her feet.
She will allow me to put her pack on and then lead her, with it on, all around the neighborhood and beside the road, too.
Catlinite, though he is allowing us to rub his neck and cheeks and stay still to be haltered, is still a challenge. But I thoroughly enjoy being around and handling our llamas as much as I can.

Our dairy goat, the mini-mancha, named Latte is settling in pretty good. She doesn't like the angoras, who tend to be bossy and head butt for no reason...just because they can. We've moved the angoras to the other pen and all the other woolies seem happier now. sigh.
Latte is kind of a pain during the day because she can't figure out how to follow the herd of other goats, sheep and llamas. So she stands there and bleats endlessly in front of the pen. She's even lost her voice on several occasions and sounds like a dying duck. I'm sure our neighbors just love that.

For the first few days after she arrived we spent alot of time with her holding, petting, handling and walking her on the leash. It's easier having a female goat in the house because they can wear diapers. A male goat's odd anatomy makes that option impossible.

Latte is doing well on the leash and is alot like Moon Pie in that she likes to fall asleep on our laps. She follows us around like a dog and enjoys being petted. I'd say she came around really quickly, considering she wasn't handled much, if at all, before we bought her.
We are also thinking about showing her in the Dairy Goat division at the NM State Fair. And if we can get our sweet Moon Pie to lose some weight (yes, I'm ashamed to admit it, but he's fat and spoiled) we want to show him in the wether class at the SouthWest Nigerian Goat Show next month.

On another note, Jones, the cat, has become more of a barn cat now. He capture mice up there and loves to take naps in the hay and with the other woolies. He cracked us up the other evening when he stroked himself all over Catlinite, while Catlinite was laying down. He really wanted to crawl up beside that big wooly llama boy and go to sleep, but Catlinite didn't like that idea at all. He warned Jones several times with spitting sounds and neck stretches, but finally gave up with the persistant Jones, and stood up and walked away. Thankfully Catlinite is usually all 'bark, but no bite', and never spit at his people or other animals in our barn. He will spit at Cataleya though. She sometimes deserves it, too.

Click on this link below if you'd like to see some photos of:
Latte, Barn Girl and Jones