I was visiting my friends Kristin and Lloyd Shirley over the Christmas holidays at their farm in Jasper, Texas. It was unusually warm for this time of year, and it was time to feed the goats and put them in the barn before nightfall. As usual, the goat herd beat us to the barn in anticipation of their Christmas Eve repast.
As we opened the gate and hiked up the hill to the barn, Lloyd quietly stated, “Baby goat.”
“What?” Kristin asked.
“Baby goat,” Lloyd quietly restated.
I understood what he said before it registered with Kristin, and I looked all around. “He said baby goat,” I said as both Kristin and I spotted the little black and white fur baby lying in the hay at about the same time. Each of us had been up to the barn earlier in the day checking on the goats – anticipating at least one birth. But none of us had seen anything. Two of the Shirley’s nanny goats, Maggie and Ruby, were very pregnant – but looking around – they still were. So, the mama goat was a mystery to be solved.
Just then, a buttermilk-colored goat walked up to the black and white baby goat who stood up to suckle. So the mama was Lily – who no one even suspected was pregnant because she was born only 10 months earlier, April 25, 2024, to a cream-colored goat named Millie. Millie had only become a member of the Hawkglen Farms herd when she was purchased (obviously already pregnant) from the Kirbyville Auction Barn February 3, 2024. So, the baby goat born on Christmas Eve was indeed a surprise gift. She was initially named Evie.
Well, this might have been the end of Evie’s saga – except a cold front came bringing torrential rains and tornados. Christmas Day began nice and the goat herd went out to forage in the pasture – Mama Lily included. About midday, the sky opened up and the rains came – catching the herd out in the forested pasture. When Evie woke up from her nap wanting some lunch, Mama was nowhere to be found and the torrential rain falling on the barn roof was loud – and for a baby goat, scary.
Kristin and I were in the guest house playing Scrabble and Lloyd was in his studio working on a project when he looked up and caught a glimpse of the day-old Evie running down the road. Why was she out? Lloyd ran out of the studio and chased Evie. He had his hand on her when she slipped under the barbed wire fence into their neighbor’s property.
Dejected, Lloyd came up to the guest house to relate what had happened. They decided to wait until the rain let up to search for the baby. When the rains let up enough, a search began for Evie. About 30 minutes into the search, Kristin saw her neighbor’s abandoned animal pen. The gate was open – and she thought, “maybe.” There, in the corner of the pen – scared, wet, cold, and shivering – was Evie, who did not protest when picked up and wrapped in a towel. She was lovingly dried off and carried back to the barn to a Mama frantically searching for her baby. Lily quickly served Evie’s lunch. Panic over.
December 27 dawned colder but with some sunshine and the goat herd was let out of the barn to again forage. Lily left Evie sleeping in the barn – we thought. We knew she would return in time to nurse her baby. About noon, Lloyd went to check on the goats and found the goat herd still out foraging and Evie was gone again. He came back to the house where we were cooking and again, a search for baby Evie ensued. The goat herd was located in the pasture, and 22 acres of pasture were walked. All the goats were accounted for – except Evie.
All the things that could hurt Evie started haunting our thoughts – feral dogs, feral hogs, coyotes, hawks. Eventually, we had to stop looking for her. We were all saddened, but figured the Christmas Eve present was gone. Life is fickle sometimes. But at dusk that evening at feeding time, Evie gamboled up to the barn, following Lily and the rest of the herd. Panic over – again.
We figured that Lily had done what deer do – the doe taking the fawn out near where she is feeding and hiding the fawn while she eats. But that was two days in a row that precious kid had petrified Kristin, Lloyd and me – and Evie was so small.
That evening, Kristin decided that Evie needed a collar and a bell so they could hear her, even if they couldn’t see her. The next day after a quick trip to Walmart, Evie was sporting a pink (formerly cat) collar and the last jingle bell in the store.
Surprisingly, Evie did not fight the collar and bell. In fact, she frolicked and played wearing the collar. Now everyone could find Evie if she went walkabout. But this development caused a change. Evie was the only goat in the herd wearing a bell and she was so delicate and tiny, flitting around the bigger goats. So, at three days old, Evie became Tinkerbell. “I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies.” Don’t tell me there is no magic in the East Texas woods at Hawkglen. n
