Norman Bates....my goat with Mother issues

Since I started with the newest addition to my animal family...I guess we will go in reverse order on the appearance of each of my four-legged children.  Rhett the ratbag has been covered...but I assure you...he will do something spectacularly crazy and be on the front page in no time!  I promise.

Normy...so where should I begin with him.  First, Norman is my 2 1/2 year-old (and for lack of better description of his breeding) cross bred feral goat.  Meet Norm doing what he does best, eating things he shouldn't and being a general pest sitting on my back step pooping on everything!

When they say don't take your work home with you....it means something different when you are a vet.  I have to blame Matt, my pseudo-son but that is a story for another day, for bringing Norman into my life.  Baby Norman was found wandering around a yard when he was about 2 weeks old.  No mummy goat(nanny), and he apparently had been hiding under the cars at a house for a few days before the people living there decided he might need help...and thought to bring him into the clinic.  Matt was going to send him to a better place when our boss intervened...saying, "We should keep him for the open day.  Give him to Jennie, she will take care of him".  I guess maybe I should blame my boss too! 

That is how I ended up with a little white baby goat with a munched up face sitting on my lap in my living room on my birthday weekend.  And me trying to make him eat with his broken jaw and three puncture wounds in his skull...and him snorting and drooling his milk out all over me at every turn. I worried that he was going to die but finally after 2 days getting up every two hours to try to feed him, he drank!  And didn't stop until I weaned him 6 weeks later. 

This is Norm at 4 weeks.  Notice the strategicly placed hole in his head.  Was more like a blow hole for pus and milk!!  But darn it he was cute. 

So, where did I get his name, Norman.  Well, there were lots of names tossed around.  Crash....Smash....Curry....Stew....Billy and Buck.  I wasn't feeling that these names really fit my poor munched up little man....and yes...even Munch crossed my mind.  However, when my little white fluff started feeling better I began to notice that he had imprinted on me.  And I could go no where or no place without a little four-legged guy tapping after me.  This included the bathroom and my morning shower.  Yes...every morning...my little baby goat was in the shower with me right under my feet.  And goodness forbid if he could not find me...the screaming and crying.  I soon decided that my little guy was definitely gonna have "mummy" issues.  And that is when I saw Psycho the movie on TV....with my little white pus snorting goat kid close at hand....and soon after had my epiphany.....NORMAN BATES.  My white fluff was definitely gonna have mummy issues....but I felt confident he would never run a motel in the niddle of the desert. LOL!!

Norman...very sad after being treated for baby goat head lice!  He was not impressed with my Frontline treatment.  LOL!

Me and Norman

Norman is all grown up now but I still love showing all of his baby pictures.  LOL!!  Reminds me of how cute he was when he is being a brat and eating all my plants.  Now...he is a plant destroying machine that rules my yard by day and the garage by night. 

These are pictures of Norman going what he does best...getting into trouble and eating.  Normy loves to eat.  He knows exactly where to find food.  And he loves to show off is balancing skills, too!

Norman currently enjoys sitting on my front step and reminding me how angry he is that I got Rhett, the dog! He regularly busts in the front door searching for tasty treats.  He learned how to open the door and he tries to be sneaky about it.  However, when I hear what sounds like two teenage girls in high heels in my kitchen making a snack, I know Norman is in the building.  He has an appetite for fruit and and beer.  I am not sure how he opens the bottles, but he never spills a drop. HAHA!!

Rhett-Rat-Dag-Bag-a-mus

Yes....it is a word that is thrown around this joint on a daily basis.  You may ask..what is a Rhett-Rat-Dag-Bag-a-mus?  To put it simply he is my wiggly ball of energy and most handsome Australian Shepherd, Rhett Butler! 

I decided that I had to have a dog two years ago.  What??...a cattle vet without a dog...yes...shocking!!  But my friend started passing around pictures of the pup she had picked out and I got very clucky.  Actually puppy pictures are like a drug for us veterinary types.  And we are know for impulse aquisitions (Norman case and point but his story is for another day).  The search began for the perfect puppy soon thereafter. 

All I wanted was an Australian Shepherd.  And one would think that in Australia this breed would be in abundance.  But you would be wrong...most Australians had never heard of an Aussie Shepherd.  So, I searched high and low, googled, debated until I found a lovely lady in Queensland with a litter of pups and three...yes three red merles from which I could pick.  Heaven...bliss!  

I picked this one as my first choice had been snapped up while I was deciding.  LOL!!  Yes..he looks like a hamster at that moment.  But I knew he would fit in with my crazy crew.  And I immediately christened him Rhett Butler...with intention of having his papered name be "Frankly My Dear". 

And at 6 weeks he was a heart breaker!  But now...almost a year and half has passed...and he has turned into one of the most wonderful, lovely, crazy hounds I have ever owned. Actually, I think he owns me...but that is another tale of which I am sure there will be many more to share.  A friend convinced me that Rhett needed to have his own Facebook Fan site...and so we set one up with adventure after adventure perpetrated by Rhett and his friends. Most are when he is naughty..but you cannot help but laugh!  Especially when he looks at you and smiles.  See below.

He slays me when he smiles.  And he has learned that if he smiles after he had done something really naughty, like stealing all of my housemates underwear off the washing line, you are rendered unable to be angry and he gets off scot free.  And after a hard days work, it is good to know that somebody is getting a good nights sleep even if it is not me. :)

Where should I begin??

So where to begin...where to begin?  Well 11 years ago I decided to change my life, career and country...a little bit like the Beverly Hillbillies in reverse order.  The funny thing...it almost didn't happen...I almost chickened out.  If my bestie Jennifer had not threatened to pack my ass in a suitcase and gag me with Australian dollars...I might never have gotten to this point in my life.

Lots of big changes that year....country....back to school...new path! 

Here I am....now a veterinarian....that loves cattle...goats...ok and sheep sometimes...and the ocassional pig.

This is a picture of me and one of my little friends.  She is actually all grown-up now and having baby calves and making milk.  Love the circle of life being a dairy cow vet.  And all the funny silly things that happen each...and yes even the little miracles.  But mostly the people...the lovely people that I meet in my travels.

So, come along for the ride.  Though I will warn you up front..being a cattle vet is a dirty stinky business.  But you all keep asking what I get up to...so here you go.