The Babysitters' Club

By Patty Greene,
Rockville, IN

    We live on a farm in Parke County, Indiana. We have horses, cows, goats, ducks, geese, peafowl, potbelly pigs, cats and dogs. A normal farm. Maybe.
    Last summer, my daughter let her Nigerian Dwarf goats and their babies out to roam the pastures. When evening came, she went out to put them in the barn away from the harm of coyotes and dogs during the night.
    The mama goats came up when she called them, but no babies. Mandy, my daughter, was frantic. Immediately she got her brother to go with her to the back to look for her babies, fearing something had gotten all of them already.
    They got to the back pasture and found all the horses in a circle in the very back. When they got closer and continued to call for the babies, the horses looked up but did not move (You need to understand that this herd of horses contained Percherons, Appaloosas, Quarter Horses, Paints and miniature horses. Quite a mixed group.)
    Then, the horses, as a circled group, started moving toward them. There in the middle of the circle of horses were the missing baby goats, safe and sound with their babysitters.
    After the horses got the babies to Mandy, they opened up and let the babies go with her to their moms.