Mourning mother goat in Victoria adopts sister's newborn kid
Before we can fully appreciate the name of the latest baby goat to arrive at the Beacon Hill Children’s Farm in Victoria, we need to know her story.
It begins with her dad, named Wasabi.
“He’s spicy,” laughs John Hartley, a business manager at the farm. “He’s a spicy boy!”
And after Wasabi went on a couple hot dates with Moon and Venus, there was out-of-this-world excitement that the two sisters were pregnant at the same time.
“They can spend time together,” smiles Claudia Laube, the farm manager. “They can raise the kids as a little team.”
While the moms-to-be were named after celestial orbs, Moon and Venus looked like ripe fruit after a few months of being pregnant.
“Like a pear,” Claudia laughs, drawing the shape with her hands. “Sitting down all plump!”
But all the smiles suddenly stopped after Moon went into labour first. Her baby was stillborn.
“I hate it when they lose their babies,” Claudia cries.
But no one was more distraught than Moon.
“She started crying,” Ted says. “She had done all this work and now there’s nothing there.”
“She was making little ‘Where’s my baby’ sounds,” Claudia says.
It only got worse for Moon the next day when she heard her sister giving birth to a healthy boy.
“And Moon was in the stall next door making these sounds,” Claudia says. “She was saying, ‘Where’s my baby?!’”
But then Claudia and Ted heard another sound.
“All of a sudden we hear this 'bloop,'" Ted recalls.
It was Venus birthing another baby. “It’s like a water balloon. [The babies] are in this gelatin sac.”
Venus was so busy welcoming her first kid, named Jupiter, she didn’t notice the arrival of her much smaller second baby.
Claudia was suddenly inspired to give this new baby to the mourning Moon.
“She sniffed [the baby], took her head back a little, and was like, ‘Oooh! This is not mine!'” Claudia says.
“So we tried to put [the baby’s scent] on Moon’s nose so she thinks it came from her.”
After a few minutes, confusion turned to curiosity before Moon started licking the newborn clean and was instantly elated.
“It was like this miraculous, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Ted says, recalling how joyful Moon's reaction seemed. “‘My baby was there all along. I just never found it. Now I have!’”
Moon completely accepted her sister’s baby girl as her own. Venus treats the kid like it’s Moon’s offspring.
“I’m just so proud of them,” Claudia says fighting back tears. “I’m so happy that Moon has someone she can raise now.”
The farm is recognizing Moon and Venus becoming moms with a Mother's Day fundraiser for the farm.
Weeks later, the sisters are supporting each other while their kids are inseparable.
“Your heart just bursts with happiness,” Ted smiles.
Like the sun appearing after the darkest of days, they named the adopted baby goat Solaris.
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