Dolly’s Triplets

Triplets closeup
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Dolly was the last of the Finns to have her lambs. She was so big and uncomfortable the last few days. Now we know why, she had triplets, 2 ewes and a ram. From L to R they are Loretta Lynn, Alex, and Patsy. They were born on 4/14/08 in the evening just after dinner. I had stayed in the barn before dinner and realized how uncomfortable Dolly was and thought she was going to start going into labor at any time. I sat with her and rubbed her belly and tried to make her feel more comfortable. Dinner was ready, so I came inside and ate and went back out to the barn as soon as I could. Within minutes of returning, she started into labor. Loretta Lynn was first out, no problem. Then came Alex, and I moved Alex in front of Dolly to start cleaning him up. I could see Patsy’s hooves starting to appear when I heard a newborn lamb crying. I turned around to find Loretta Lynn was already across the pen by the feeder. I picked her up and moved her back closer to momma. Then Patsy decided to appear hind legs and butt first. All of the lambs are doing fine, so far, with Dolly nursing all of them. I’m keeping an eye on them to make sure all of them are getting enough milk from mom. I hope that Dolly will be able to raise all three on her own. If not, I may be bottle feeding at least one.

 

Rosie and her kittens

Rosie and kittens
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

My cat had kittens, AGAIN! She had 4 kittens this time, 3 boys and 1 girl. The two orange ones are boys, the lighter tiger is also a boy and the dark tiger is a little girl. They don’t have names yet…so many babies born around the farm this past week. They were born 4/14/08 in the corner of the stack of hay in the barn. We moved the hay bales and provided her with a box and an old saddle pad for comfort. We put the box in the same corner where we’d found the babies, obviously Rosie liked that spot for her babies.

 

Tara and Aaron

Tara and Aaron
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Daisy, our white Finn ewe finally had her lambs. A set of twins, one ewe and one Ram. They were born on my daughter’s birthday, 4/12/08, so I named the ewe after her and the ram after her boyfriend. Tara is on the left and Aaron is on the right.

 

elvis

elvis
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Here’s a picture of Elvis, the ram twin. He’s Clara Bella’s brother. He looks kind of shy, but he’s not! They were both up and nursing within minutes of birth. When they were just a couple hours old they were already sproing around like little lambs do.

 

clarabella

clarabella
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Bella Vita Farm & Fiber welcomed twins yesterday, 4/9/08. The twins are Finn lambs and this is a picture of Clara Bella. She looks like a little panda bear doesn’t she? Clara Bella will be staying here at Bella Vita Farm.

 

Donna side

Donna side
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Our first lamb born on Bella Vita Farm & Fiber, April 7, 2008. She is a little Shetland x Finn ewe, we named Donna. She was born around 9 AM while I was doing morning chores. We were late for an appointment with our CPA, Don. So we named her Donna, seemed very fitting.

 

Alpine Twins

twins
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Here are the twins born Feb. 23, 2008 weighing in about 8 to 8.5 lbs. The one on the left with the white eyebrow is Venus and the full frontal shot is Casseopia (Cassie). Shannon (the mom) had them about 3 PM without help. I was on my way out to the barn to check on everything when about halfway there I heard baby cries, newborns. I knew it wasn’t Lacy. When I got there mom was cleaning off the first one (Venus) and Cassie was still covered with amniotic fluid. I grabbed a towel and cleaned her off some and gave her to mom to finish getting her clean and dried off. It right around freezing outside but the barn was about 40 degrees F.

 

Lacy 3qtr shot

Lacy 3qtr shot
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Here’s the newest addition to the Bella Vita Farm. She’s a little Alpine doe that I named Lacy. I just started a new group on Ravelry “A Gathering of Lace” the same that Lacy was born, Feb. 21, 2008. Mom and baby are doing great!

 

Thought I killed the cat!

The other day I turned on the jeep to take the neighbor home and I heard a thud. I turned the motor off immediately, not knowing what it was. My neighbor said he thought it was a cat in the motor and I got out and my husband confirmed that one of our cats went limping VERY FAST into the barn. Oh my stars….I killed the cat!

He was hiding between the wall and the stack of hay bales and of course my DH had just stacked 25 new bales into the barn. The neighbor, Jeff and DH moved bales until we found the cat. I could tell where he was by the blood he left on the wall of the barn.

I pulled him out of his hiding place and fortunately he was not dead, there was some blood but not much. He had a rear leg that definitely was broken and the bone was doubled up where it moved after breaking. I found out when I called the vet they would charge about $600 to fix his leg, it would need surgery and pins. I love my animals, but $600 is about $600 more than I could afford to spend.

My friend Cindy and I decided to set the broken leg and see what happens. Well, actually Cindy set the leg, I was just the assitant. Hopefully Casey will be able to use his leg without more than a slight gimp. The only other options were to put him down or amputation. The vet told me that even spending $600 didn’t guarantee that it would fix. Sometimes the vet ends up amputating the limb anyway.

 

Shannon

Shannon
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

This is Shannon, my goofy, loveable Alpine goat. She’s always looking for attention and this picture is no exception. Shannon’s job is to produce enough milk to feed the extra lambs…and we’d like some milk too! I’m hoping she has twins this year, but a really good milk supply would be great too.