Page 29 of Need Me
Brooke started. “What? What’s going on?” she askedloudly.
Robert chuckled. “Sally’s starting to have herkids.”
“Oh!” She scrambled off his lap and got up as she focused on Sally. “It’s solittle.”
Robert joined her, shaking the kinks out of his legs. “Must be agirl.”
“What time isit?”
Checking his watch, Robert replied, “Wow. It’s one-thirty-three.”
Brooke’s eyes bugged out. “In the morning? You said that she was going to deliver within anhour.”
“Having babies isn’t an exact science with animals,” Robert toldher.
“Here it comes!” Brooke was distracted by the kid sliding outfurther.
Robert grabbed one of the feed sacks from the kid birthing kit he’d put together a couple of weeks prior. He’d help Sally out by cleaning each of the kids to make it easier onher.
“C’mon, girl. Push her out. That’s right,” he urged Sally as he put on a pair of latexgloves.
The goat grunted and the first kid slid free. Robert went to work, breaking open the embryonic sac and clearing its nostrils. He snipped the umbilical cord and rubbed the baby down. “It’s a doe.” Finished, he gave it to Sally. “Look, Mama. You have a pretty littlegirl.”
Sally bleated and immediately started finishing the cleaning job Robert hadbegun.
Brooke squatted close to the kid. “She’s adorable. She’s marked likeSam.”
Robert said, “She’s a paint, just likehim.”
Brooke looked up at him. “Like a painthorse?”
“Yeah. Here comes anotherone.”
He got a kick out of the way Brooke squealed a little and moved back to watch. The next one was a buck, and while healthy, it wastiny.
“I think Sally has fooled us all the way around,” hecommented.
“What do youmean?”
Robert gave the buck to Sally. “Well, both of those kids are small.” He started feeling and gently prodding Sally’s belly. “If I’m not mistaken, she’s got two more inthere.”
“Four? She’s going to have four babies at once?” Brooke went to Sally and pet herhead
Robert burst into laughter, the sound echoing through thebarn.
Brooke became indignant. “Well, come on, Robert. Four is just ridiculous. She’s only one little goat. How’s she going to feed themall?”
Robert cracked up evenharder.
Brooke motioned toward the outside. “And Three Legs out there isn’t going to be any help. Far as he’s concerned, his part in the whole thing isdone.”
Catching his breath, Robert said, “She has four teats; one for each kid. And they’ll take turns. They’ll be fine. Sally is an experienced mother. This is her fourthlitter.”
Some of the fight went out of Brooke as she looked at Sally and then back at Robert. “Oh. Well, all right,then.”
Robert smiled and then turned his attention back to Sally when she stood up and grunted a fewtimes.
Brooke knelt in front of Sally and took her face in her hands. “Come on, Sally. You got this. I’ll helpyou.”
