Enter Evelyn!

After two days spent watching Thumbelina closely, I came out to the barn around noon today to find Cocoa hanging in the stall. The rest of the herd had wandered back into the woods foraging, but Cocoa called to me from the “little girls’s” stall. When I looked in on her, she was crouched in a corner, preparing to give birth—or so I thought. Upon my entering the stall, she changed her mind, exited, and trotted off. I gave it no more thought and went on with my work.

In the late afternoon when the herd wandered toward the barn in search of dinner and shelter for the night, Miss Cocoa was back in the stall … with a brand-new bonus baby! The black-and-white doeling (yea!) has her father’s coloring (Bully is black and white) but her mother’s beauty and spotted pattern. Dutifully I called our next-door neighbor who, despite suffering from a raging case of poison ivy caught during a weekend-day of open brush burning, donned apparel and hustled over to see the new arrival. (Our neighbors are such good sports!) The new addition, already mostly cleaned, stood to nurse for the first time and showed off her geographical skills by locating dinner in short order.

Unlike Raymond, with his wobbly and spindly legs, this newcomer wobbled less and managed to stand and move without her legs folding beneath her—easily. Blue-eyed like her parents and very dear, Cocoa’s progeny is indeed precious. Our first girl to survive, I named her Evelyn to honor my late mother who would have absolutely loved life on the farm. Evelyn went out into the sunshine soon after her birth, and is bedded down under two (count ’em, two!) heat lamps tonight. We left Thumbelina in the nursery stall with Cocoa and Little Evelyn for the night. Still moving slowly and ponderously, Miss Thumbelina will be relieved when she delivers.