RIP Incredible Violet

I have been trying to write this post for months now.   I still can't talk about this beautiful girl without getting choked up.   If you read my blog entry from July 25, 2022 you know that we had Linear Appraisal that day and the Violet was scored VEEE 90.  At that time she was 10 weeks post partum with a retained kid.  

WSU veterinary hospital checked her again in Sept and said that the skeleton wasn't breaking down or encapsulating and that there was nothing to be done.  They could put her down, or we could take her home with an uncertain future.  "She could live another 2 days or 2 years, there is no way to know."   We couldn't bring ourselves to have her put down and planned to make her time with us as comfortable as possible.  She passed away during the night of Oct 15th/16th.

We buried her in the pasture and the remaining herd gathered round to watch as we lowered her into the grave.  A little later I was sitting outside the barn and little Vortex walked over and stood looking over the pasture.  She gave a soft mama call, and then her older half sister Valkyrie walked out of the barn and stood shoulder to shoulder with her. Just two lost sisters looking off into the distance and missing their mama. 

I had managed not to cry up until that moment but that just wrecked me.  Valkyrie and Violet were close, but when Vortex came along she and Valkyrie were kind of at odds with each other.   So to see Valkyrie be the one to step up was so sweet.   

Out of all the goats I have loved and lost over the last 16 years, the loss of my first doe Mame' and now her grand-daughter Violet who looked so much like her, have been my hardest losses.  Mame' and I had a special bond and while Violet and I didn't share that same bond, I waited two years for her to be born, and all my efforts to get Linear Appraisal for my herd were so she could get the recognition I knew in my heart she deserved.   RIP Violet!