Soji
On the beautiful, unseasonably sunny day of February 24th, 2022, Soji, and her two brothers, Simon and Sebastian, were born. Although they were two days early, their mama, Sabrina, chose the perfect day to deliver them.
Sabrina’s labor was shorter and easier than last year, and before I knew it, Soji was born without difficulty. As I cleaned her face off, I realized I had gotten my wish for another Saffron (Sabrina’s doeling from 2021). Soji is nearly a carbon copy of her big sister! Shortly after Soji entered the world, Simon and Sebastian arrived within a couple minutes of each other. Simon looks just like his mama, and Sebastian is a gorgeous chocolate color. Both boys have tons of chrome! They were up and nursing within a few minutes and I was so proud of Sabrina as she had them all cleaned up and recovered quickly. After getting their colostrum, all three kids sacked out in a sunny patch in the straw. It’s demanding work being born!
After a couple of weeks, I began to notice Soji wasn’t thriving as well as her two brothers. I watched closely and realized they were crowding her out of Sabrina’s udder and even Sabrina was beginning to refuse to let her nurse. I dug up the bottle and milked Sabrina and then had to tackle teaching a 2-week-old kid to be a bottle baby. I thought I was in for a real battle, but Soji figured it out on the second try! She’s so smart!
So I made a deal with Sabrina: I feed Soji for her, but she takes care of her the rest of the time. Soji still got to hang out with her brothers and mom but when I would come to the stall with her breakfast, she was my baby!
We had a friend feed Soji for a few days when we headed back to Idaho to pick up a Nubian doeling from the same farm where Jax was born. It worked out so well to have Soji be a bottle baby because our new doeling, Bonnie, was going to need a bottle buddy, anyway!
