Saturday, July 29, 2017

Goodbye Whinnie


Whinnie the goat kid July 17

I'm saddened to report that Whinnie, the little goat kid born at the end of April which we were hand-raising, had to be put to sleep recently. He had been too weak to leave with his mother, hence the reason for becoming surrogate mother for him. We were amazed he had lived so long and during his 10 weeks, he had been adopted by the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside as their mascot.

He had however developed an infection and as he was hand-raised, the milk we were feeding him did not contain the anti-bodies he needed to fight off the illness. We took Whinnie to the vet who later the same day phoned us with the bad news: he was highlighly unlikely to survive and if was better for him that he be put to sleep immediately.

The organisers of the Whinnies Community Garden arranged for us to have a corner where we could bury him. They are keen for a small memorial to be installed and I'll sort that out later this year. In the meantime, the Garden is without a mascot. I'm planning something on that front.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm very sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, farmers have to cope with the death of dear animals often, for one reason or another. At least Whinnie was well loved. My darling goat, Sprinkles, died recently - she wasn't eating for a few days and then we found her dead in her stall one morning.