Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You.....

So here it is, breeding season again.

Didn't we just do that?

This year is kinda a new experience.  Moon has been rock steady for us all these years, but, as previously mentioned, it is time to toss a little chlorine in the gene pool.  This year, we have a "lease buck," here on very friendly terms.  Okay.  Ditto is all about being friendly right now.  But i meant that Susan has graciously lent us the buck of my choosing for the duration of breeding season.  When all that is done, we will send him back home, and try a milking season with no bucks so that i can turn every drop of milk into cheese for both our families.  Gonna be real busy next summer, so don't expect much out of me except for yummy delicious cheese.

Ditto and Lancie Boy kinda had a car crash introduction, so i tossed Lance in with the girlz until everyone got used to each other through the fence.  Unfortunately, Lance is a lovin' muffin of very little brain, and twice the size of my girlz.  He seemed perfectly content in with the herd, but doesn't have very good manners, and is too big to bully into line.  Even for Becky the Bad, if you can imagine that.  Ren might have been able to pull it off, but, too late for that.

They have all had a couple of days, and the initial curiosity has worn off, so i decided it was time to try to meld the buck pen again.

This, like all my breeding plans, was a Happy Thought.

Ditto was lookin' for a Love Slave, and Lance wuddn't havin' any.

There wasn't any sparring, as would naturally be expected, just a whole lotta chasin' and courtin'.

I finally walked away--couldn't stand it any more, and there was WAY too much testosterone being exuded for me to get in the pen and separate them.  After about 10 minutes, i didn't hear any songs of love coming from that quadrant, so went back around the corner for a look-see.

They had gone to their separate corners and laid down. 

Lance was by the fence, and when i tried to love on him, my affections were spurned.  He was just plain ticked at me.

Round two then commenced, and as i watched, i thought perhaps i should put a doe in there to take the heat off of Lance. 

So i go in the house and check my records, because this year (don't fall over, Susan,) i have been keeping track of who was in heat, and when, partly because i need a tad more control than the Tigger Method of Breed Planning (just throw open the door and hope for the best) affords me, and partly because i need to do a drive-by breeding with Splendora, taking her over to Queenacres for a rendezvous with Manny.

When i have a look at the "Hot List," i am chagrined. 

Give ya three guesses as to whom the next doe up to the plate is.

Can you say "Cherry Bomb?"

Just my luck.

Let me just state for the record that THAT ain't gonna happen on purpose.

Next closest At Bat is Becky the Bad.

Good enough.

I drag her into the buck pen, and voila!  Ditto ignores her like she was the dorky girl with braces, coke bottle glasses and pigeon toes at the prom (Oh!  Wait!  That's Cherry!)

Ditto continued to chase Lance around, and Becky mosied on over and stuck her head through the fence to eat from the smorgasbord in the south field.

And after all that trouble to get him here.

**Sigh**

Eventually, Ditto realized that there was another goat in the pen, and started harassing Becky, instead.

Now, the ol' girl iddn't known as "Becky the Bad" for nuthin'.

Pretty soon she gave him the slip.  Managed to stay in hiding long enough for Ditto to smooth down his feathers and catch his breath.  She then led the boys out to the buck pasture and everyone had a browse.

By the end of the day, Ditto and Lance were enjoying a somewhat tenuous truce, but truce none the less.

Tune in tomorrow for the pictoral version of this story.