An innocent Boykin Spaniel was attacked by a goat at a birthday party today. Film at 11:00.

See, it was my favorite shepherd’s birthday today, and a whole bunch of us from the MVFF Ravelry group (masterminded by Lauria) got together to raise money for bales of hay for the farm.

Between all of us, we put together a card and a “check” of all the money that had been collected via Paypal … $1,051.28. Enough for almost 162 bales of hay! I’m not sure how much hay they go through a day, but that should keep them going for at least a couple weeks, huh?

Of course, it’s even more fun if you add in a surprise, so … we did. Four of us group members (and a few extra family members, like Mom and Chappy) all secretly met at the corner up the road from the farm, and then pulled up all at once to surprise Susan and Erin.

Then we dragged Susan over to the Lambcam to give her her present–so that everybody ELSE would have a chance to see it, too. (Oh, and you can watch the video that Jean of Scottish Lamb made–here.)

Yeah. I’d say she was surprised!

Concentrating on the gift-giving wasn’t easy, either, because the Lambcam is, of course, in the Nursery. And you know what that means.

Lots and lots of nannies and baby kids. (All that mohair, just waiting to grow.)

If you watch the Lambcam (and, why wouldn’t you?), you only get to see a corner of the pen. But let me tell you–with over 20 babies and their moms, there is a lot of cuteness going on in there.

LOTS of cuteness.

We even got to meet Nickelodeon, the baby I was lucky enough to name. (Say it with me now … Awwww!) (That’s also him sharing a private moment with his Mom in that little shelter, just above.)

But … there was danger in that pen.

Notice all those adult, mama faces pointing our way?

Yeah, they were mostly all watching my sweet, innocent Chappy.

Now, he’s met them before–face to face with the babies, even, last year. But maybe because there were so many babies, or because they were littler, or just because goat #9 (I think it was Nana/#9) didn’t like him … there was trouble.

Chappy was innocently standing next to me, doing NOTHING more threatening than wagging his tail, when she rushed him and butted him right on the head, making my poor boy yelp. (She’s got horns, you know; he only has fur.) But, well, she had babies to protect, and after that, he kept even more distance–trying to keep me between him and the Moms. Except, that was kind of hard.

Then, we were standing next to one of the yurts and he was sitting down between me and Susan, which is about as protected and unthreatening a place as he could be, when she butted him again and knocked him rolling.

Poor Chappy! After that, we went right out of the pen and he huddled up next to me for a few minutes, saying, “But I didn’t DO anything!” while I tried to explain she was just being extra sensitive because of her babies. But after that, he wasn’t exactly interested in going back in the pen anymore, so we kept the fence between us and them.

And Chappy relieved his feelings by barking at just about every chicken he saw. He just can’t help it–he thinks they’re just weird looking birds, outside of his food dish!

Did I mention that there was cake?

Really, this was SO much nicer than spending the day at work. I got to spend a few hours with a bunch of fiber-loving friends, on a beautiful day, spreading birthday cheer. AND I got to bring home my Spring CSA Share, which had gone AWOL for a while.

And, the best part? We get to go up in another week for the Shearing Festival on May 9th!

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