Getting a nearly-weaned goat to take a bottle is like trying to get your husband to pick up dirty socks after 20 years of throwing them on the floor - a lot of resistance and not much success. Sunday night we couldn't wait any longer, so I carefully warmed 2 bottles of whole milk and took them out to the garage/temporary goat home. How much fun this would be!! However, the goats had other ideas - what is that alien object you are trying to shove in my mouth? I will NOT take that, I am not a bottle goat. That is about as similar to my mother as humans are to tractors. Go away, stupid person. .... I tried all the tricks that usually work with premature infants, but nothing could coax those goats to drink from a bottle.

Monday, Tuesday, we kept trying. They drank plenty of water from a bucket, so finally I just poured some milk in a cat bowl to at least let them get it that way. (Refused - though the cat was happy...) I told Emily maybe this was not going to happen. She was holding Emerson, and asked me to just try again, so from behind her I grabbed his nose and stuck the bottle in his mouth - miracle of all miracles, he took a few tentative sucks. That was it - we were rejuvenated, determined to succeed. Bottle-babies, here we come!