Billy Bob -The Goat (Repost for Lottie) Original Post: 8/25,2011

Billy Bob, “You wanna fight? I’ve got horns and I WILL hurt you!”

Billy Bob loving his bath

Change of pace from the cats and dogs. This is a repost from August 25,2011. Billy Bob is still doing okay as of today. He is now about 12 years old. I don’t remember what year I rescued him from becoming cabrito. He was maybe 5 months old at the time.

Brandi giving Billy Bob a bath .   The following is a post dated August,2011 about Billy Bob my goat, so understand that this is not a recent happening.

August, 2011
This past week has been rough for out pet goat. I noticed he was limping on his right front foot and when I examined his foot I found that the pad of his hoof was tender and swollen. From the large animal vet in our town I obtained a huge syringe of an antibiotic which I injected into the deep muscle tissue of his neck. The veterinarian’s instruction was, “wait a couple of days and see if the injection makes any difference.” Two days passed and by Thursday of last week his limp was the same if not worse. I then managed to wrangle our son and two of our welders to load Billy Bob into a large wire crate that was roomy and secure. The large animal vet was across town but Billy Bob made the trip without undue stress. Dr. J. gave Billy (2) antibiotic injections, an oral dewormer and then scraped around his  infected hoof  which allowed the “crud” to drain which helped reduce the swelling and infection. After our goat arrived back home, I moved him to the back yard where I was able to observe him more closely as well as soak the hoof in a solution of iodine mixed in water.  I needed help to keep his foot in the bucket of antibiotic solution. It was quite a circus of three people holding a goat that had one foot in a red bucket as he munched on carrots. We could only keep his foot in the bucket for about 3-4 minutes but I was satisfied that at least the foot was cleaned and soaked at the same time. As of Wednesday, Billy Bob was limping slightly. He has been quite pampered  with carrots, apples, alfalfa hay and goat pellets. He now shuns his costal bermuda grass hay. Billy Bob actually became spoiled in one day.I am happy to say that he appears much improved and seems to have gained a few pounds. He lost weight from being ill. The foot may have been infected for several weeks before I noticed that he was limping. Last Monday my part time helper for special projects, Brandi, gave him a great bath.Of special note here, Brandi is not afraid of any animal whether she is working with a wayward dog, semi-feral cat, or a goat. She is much more talented than I when working with animals.

Update: May 18,2013. Billy Bob continues to be spoiled and would hurt me if he could. He is special none the less to me and he will have a home with me for as long as he lives. Presently he is probably about 12 years old but I am just not sure of the year that I saved him from being barbecued. Gee I hate the word barbecue!

Photographs and post by ~ yvonne~

Meet Henri of YouTube Fame: View Only if You Like Cats

Will Braden is the young man who initially filmed the family cat as part of an assignment while attending film school. The project received high praise and Henri the French gatto was born. Each video is solely produced by
Will Braden.

Perhaps all or most of the viewers who are fond of cats are already familiar with Henri.

Personally I find these videos hilarious and I hope that viewers of this video, will as well.

Photos From the Past

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Val of “Arty Ole Bird” is my good blogging friend who lives in Wales. She sent me the link to the WordPress Gallery instructions on how to do this gallery. I honestly did not know if I could make it work or not but I have found that I was lucky. Val is a http and Word Press genius. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for being such a good friend. She is super funny and very gracious.

http://artyoldbird.com/2013/05/02/question-time/

The link with instructions is here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/

These are all old photos taken eons ago. My children’s pic is quite faded and I think the original was slide film. Just don’t remember what was what when I took about 10 photos to the local camera store to be scanned to CD about two years ago. All of these are faded.

The photo of my Dad in the blue denim overalls was taken about 1984-5. That photo won a blue ribbon and I’ve been asked for copies of that one by several individuals. This is not a very good repro of it and I wish that I could show the pic as an original.

The photos of the cats in the window of the farm house back porch are all listing to one side. I suppose by now you can see I’ve always had a problem with “listing to one side or the other.” 🙂

Gracie came to live with me after my Dad died. She lived to be 17-18 years old. There is a story about Gracie that I’ll write some day if I live long enough. Gracie had a very interesting life, escape wise, and I hope I can do justice to her story.

Meetzie died at about age 4 and was most likely eaten by coyotes. That was a very sad day for my mother. She loved her little tortie so much.

Graybaby, came from the farm also. Meetzie might have been Graybaby’s mother, not sure. Bibble as my son Danny often called Graybaby lived to about age 14. The photo of Graybaby won a blue ribbon as well. I really like that one. I shot the “good pics” using two stobes (flash) or speed lights as I think they are now called with one flash bounced from an umbrella. I did all my pet photos without any assistance. It was really lots of work that called for infinite patience. I’m able to still get some decent ones using two flash heads and an umbrella. The amount of work required is exhausting but I am grateful that I can still produce a decent photo.

The caption on my son’s photo is obscured. Danny was about 15 years old in this pic. The little dog’s name was Andy, short for Andrew. When ever Andy was a bit of trouble I resorted to calling him Andrew. Andy was one of the smartest dogs that we were fortunate to have as part of our family. My son adored Andy and that little dog acted as if the sun rose and set in his human. Andy was 14 years old when he went to doggie heaven.

I’ve cried as I remember. And, while most of the pets lived to be old or really old, I think of my parents and the love they had for their pets. Of course, I remember the pets that were so important to my children as they were growing up. Pets and other animals and birds were and still are extremely important in the lives of my children. Each of my children continue to have dogs and cats in the household so it is not just their mother who has a love for the furry ones. 🙂

Post and photographs ~yvonne~