You've Got to be Kidding

When coincidence looks like Providence

Photo by 35mm on Unsplash

In my last post, I shared about the unexpected death of my favorite Nubian doe, Agatha. Last summer, we’d bought Agatha as a goat “in milk,” but discontinued milking her so she could focus on healing from severe anemia. It took five months, but she’d seemed to make a full recovery. I’d scheduled a date for her and a handsome buck to get together so she could have kids and start producing milk again. But unfortunately, Agatha died suddenly en route to her very important date leaving me grieved and goatless — well, goat-in-milk-less.

Goats (like cows) do not produce milk unless they produce offspring. Dairy breeds have been specifically bred over time to produce more milk than their kids need — hence providing nutrition for their keepers.

While I technically had three other does besides Agatha, only two of them were dairy goats, and our little buck had not yet turned them into mamas. Mama goats produce a fresh new milk supply for their kids which tapers off over time. To replenish the milk supply, there needs to be a new birth; thus the “freshening” cycle continues.

If Agatha had been successfully bred in February, she would have freshened in June or July. But since she’d passed, my prospects for pitchers of fresh milk on our homestead were slim — at least in the near future. I knew I would never be able to get another goat exactly like Agatha, but I also didn’t want to wait forever to get goat milk.

So I did what any determined homesteader would do in my shoes; I started hunting.

Not for deer — but for goats in milk or those who were about to be. And because I’m me, I wouldn’t settle for any old goat. It needed to be fancy. Not necessarily in pedigree, but in coloration. And yes, I still had a fondness for a black Nubian with moon-spots like the one I’d just lost.

So I stalked Craigslist. I visited goat breeder websites. I joined the East Tennessee Goat FaceBook Forum. I even asked my feed store proprietor if he knew of any such goats for sale.

Photo by Arno Vermote on Unsplash

And then I found her: a beautiful moon-spotted red Nubian who’d just given birth to a moon-spotted doeling. She was more expensive than Agatha, but she was also freshly in milk and came with the kid. It seemed like a good deal. The seller also mentioned she had another goat due to freshen soon, but I felt happy with the first one and made arrangements to pick her up after a vet had disbudded the doeling.

A few days later, I got a RANDOM call from a friend from Bible study asking whether I’d be interested in a newborn buckling from a goat she was preparing to purchase. I said I wasn’t, but in the course of conversation, we realized we were planning to buy our goats from the same seller! What a coincidence! (And thankfully, she wasn’t interested in my moon-spotted goat. Whew!) Since she was going to be out of town for the weekend, I agreed to pick up her goat as well as my own to save her the nearly 3hr trip.

Everything seemed wonderful, until my friend called a day later. Unfortunately, her buckling had died shortly after birth, and she’d decided not to purchase the mama goat after all. I felt a little torn; here, I had a beautiful goat (with moon-spots, no less!) in milk with a doeling in hand — but I had also recently watched the PBS Masterpiece’s All Creatures Great and Small episode in which a cow with brucellosis spread disease through a whole herd, resulting in lots of baby animal deaths. And I had just had my cow artificially bred for the second time.

While there are several reasons why a baby goat can die, a good handful of them involve bacterial or viral infections. Since it was unlikely my moonspotted doe had been entirely quarantined from the other goat and her offspring, there was a chance she could spread disease to my own herd and possibly jeopardize my cow’s potential pregnancy.

I didn’t feel comfortable with that risk. So I, too, cancelled my plan to purchase. I felt disappointed, of course. But mostly I felt thankful God had given me a friend in the nick of time to warn me against a purchase which could have compromised my homestead’s health.

A few days later, I got to return the favor when this same friend called about another exciting goat prospect: a doe in milk with three kids — one black and moonspotted like Agatha. What a great deal! Although I preferred a goat in milk to another doeling, I felt happy she’d found a goat for her family. I just wanted one for mine, too. But when she told me the seller required a $200 deposit before delivering the animal to her home, I felt my red flags start to wave.

Photo by Muhammad Daudy on Unsplash

This sounded eerily familiar to the time we got scammed out of a deposit for a fluffy mini-cow.

Rule of thumb — never pay for an animal you haven’t seen in person first.

I shared my unfortunate scam experience and advised her to make an appointment to see the goats before shelling out money. A couple hours later, I got a text. She had, in fact, escaped a scam! A little more research and the seller’s unwillingness to let her see the goats first revealed the truth. And while she was also disappointed, she thanked me for saving her the $200 deposit.

What a “coincidence” that I could help protect the same friend who’d helped protect me in the surprisingly complex art of goat acquisition.

Apparently, getting a goat in milk was proving to be anything but straight forward. I checked my media outlets incessantly for signs of any prospects and bordered on distraction. But with so little on the market, I told myself there probably wouldn’t be much available until kidding season in March and geared up for a long wait.

But I got surprised again. I happened across a craigslist ad posted by an AGDA registered herdsman getting out of goats due to a shift in family scheduling. He was super communicative, offered a time for me to see the goats without requiring a deposit, and best of all — had a black moon-spotted doe due to kid in March. He also had other bred does available.

I texted my friend. She picked out a goat for her family. And that weekend, my husband and I picked them both up. My friend’s goat has now successfully kidded (it was a doeling!), and I look forward to having our own baby goat next month.

I know some may scoff at the idea that God would care about moonspotted goats in milk when there’s so many bigger problems out in the world. But as someone told me years ago, God is big enough to handle our puny problems — not just the cosmic ones. In case you need a proof text, read the Biblical book of Ruth — a little love story nestled in the tempestuous times of the Hebrew Judges.

We need not entrust God with only the big things — He can handle the little things, too. And I find I am often more touched by His small, specific kindnesses than the general over-arching ones because they make me feel seen.

I will never be able to have another goat exactly like Agatha, but I am thankful for Winifred and look forward to having a new milk soon.