Earlier this week I took yet another baby goat road trip. It was a picture perfect day to take a ferry ride with two perfectly behaved little goat passengers. This trip was different from the many other baby goat road trips I’ve been on this season. This one completed a circle. The two kids made a similar road trip with me in March to the rescue. They spent two months at PSGR warming our hearts, entertaining us with their big personalities and being part of a great start to this year’s baby goat season. This trip delivered them to their new lifelong home with an amazing new family. The circle was complete.
It’s been a busy few months to say the least. Over 70 kids have come through the rescue so far this season to find their forever homes. Thousands of miles traveled to insure they are saved. Hundreds of gallons of milk purchased. Countless hours of measuring and filling bottles, feeding babies then washing bottles just to turn around and do it again a few hours later. Hundreds of volunteer hours to help lessen the burden of work on Barbara. Thousands of dollars in vet bills to save those who needed a little extra help. We’re exhausted. We’re often running on empty. Our respective houses are a bit neglected. A home cooked meal is a rare occurrence. My car has become a weekly baby goat and milk hauler. But all things considered, it’s been a pretty amazing few months.
Seeing the joy two little rescued baby goats brought to their new family, completing that circle; this is why we do what we do. This is why we sacrifice sleep, a social life, vacations, and pretty much anything not related to rescuing baby goats for these couple of crazy months. This experience, this outcome, this is what it’s all about.
Yes, there are the moments when excited baby goats spill a bucket of milk, evenings when it takes forever to get them all out of the pastures and sorted into their appropriate places for the night, days spent pleading with a hungry baby to realize his milk now comes from a bottle. Moments that sometimes make you just want to sit down and cry from sheer exhaustion and frustration. But these moments never dull our passion and commitment to the work that we choose to do. For there are also moments when we just get to simply be with the kids; one on our lap, one curled up on our feet and a dozen more within an arm’s reach and realize that they may not have had this chance at life if not for us. There are days when we get to complete the circle of the work we do and see them off to the next chapter in their lives. All of these moments make the life that is rescue work. It’s a life that comes with sacrifice but it’s a life I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world.