I have to say that changing a wheel in the middle of Catford early on a Sunday morning was not really my idea of fun, but that's exactly what I found myself doing on the way to Parson's Green last weekend. Travelling down the hill towards the Catford Gyratory the van suddenly felt rather odd ... like I was driving on glass. Driving gingerly onwards, I managed to land in the McDonald's car park with one of my back tyres as flat as a pancake.
A swift pit stop (thanks to VW kitting out the van with all the right tools for the job!) and I was on my way again .. if a little later than planned. Pondering the logistics of both markets, I made a quick call to Anthony who was en route to Bishop's Park and diverted him instead to Parson's Green. He had a busy day there whilst I tested the waters at Bishop's Park in the wonderful setting of Fulham Palace.
Fortunately, the drive home was a little less eventful!
Monday afternoon was spent in the company of the wonderful Rendezvous Club in Sittingbourne. I had given a talk there last summer and when I was invited back again, I thought we should do something a bit different.
So, I arranged for a special licence from DEFRA and took Kimono's 3 little people on a day out. And you can see just how popular they were with all the lovely ladies at Rendezvous!
The little goaties were very tired after all that cuddling and they slept very well that night.
Sadly, the same could not be said for myself last night as I spent the night lying in the barn next to an extremely poorly Poppin goat. Just as we finished milking, we noticed that Poppin seemed to be in labour. She was pushing and heaving and trying her best to get those little kiddies out into the world. But closer examination revealed that she was not at all ready for them to come out and so all that pushing was in vain.
Around 9.30pm we called out the emergency vet and lovely Pippa spent quite some time examining Poppin. There was nothing we could usefully do except sit and wait to see if her labour progressed more normally. Pippa gave Poppin some painkillers to make her more comfortable and I settled down into the straw with a blanket, ready for a long night ahead.
As the night progressed, it became clear that there was something very wrong with Poppin and, as she started to shout in pain, I held her in my arms as she died just before 4am this morning.
We will never know what happened and why it all went so wrong. Sometimes animals can induce labour themselves if they begin to feel ill as a result of something else. Is this what happened to our lovely girl? Suffering with some sudden and terrible condition that she knew would be fatal, she desperately tried to save her kids by going into labour.
Farwell. my beautiful Poppin.
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