May, 2009

Deirdre is pure Twin Creeks breeding, closely linebred on Twink's Pixie and Weisbaden, and is an improvement over her dam, Summer Blonde, in the area of feet and legs, teats, and medial suspensory ligament, while retaining Summer's nice qualities in other areas, including her sweet and quiet personality--all of which reflects well on her sire Giacomo. A powerful little doe, she still receives lots of positive comments from judges on her sharpness and dairy character (yes, really), which are sometimes more evident to the hands than to the eye. As a 1st freshener, she placed a respectable 3rd in her class at the well-attended and very competitive 2007 AGS National Show. She did succeed in earning her dairy star  in 2008 on butterfat, despite my my radically irregular milking that year. Thanks, Deirdre. This year's udder is just as beautiful: high, and even wider than before with yet more capacity; at 14 days fresh her unofficial milk total was over 6 pounds. The judges who awarded her GCH in 2009 all commented on how correct she is in all ways, and on her excellent dairy character, as well as her outstanding mammary. Judge Jeremy Lezniak said, "This doe is everything a Nigerian Dwarf doe should be." Despite having won GCh 4 times already, Deirdre still needs an leg at an official AGS sanctioned show to earn her MCH. Her first daughter to freshen, Dido, is one of our best young does, and I have also retained her 2011 daughter by Avatar, Cirrus, and both of her 2014 doe kids by Holy Bull, Grainne and Enya.

We will not be seeing any more of that wonderful udder--in 2011, Dierdre survived a bout of what appeared to be gangrene mastitis. Unlike the typical mastitis, it was not just her udder that was affected--she herself was deathly ill, and did not eat or drink on her own for days. It was touch and go for quite a while, I think, and my fat little doe was a naked skeleton for weeks. And although we saved both the udder and the doe, for which I am eternally thankful, I seriously doubt that any milk producing tissue remains intact. So she can have babies and love them, and I can feed them, and they love me as bottle babies do, which is just about perfect.

Show Record: 7 x 1st place, 1 x GCH Jr Doe (ADGA-received AGS leg), 3 x RGCH Jr Doe (AGS), 1 x RGCH Jr Doe (ADGA), 3 x GCH Sr Doe (ADGA, 2009, judges Pete Snyder, Barb Norcross, and Jeremy Lezniak; received AGS legs for 2 and Best of Breed for all 3), 1 x Best Udder in Show ( 5 Acre Farm show, 2008, judge Valerie Ciesinski), 5 x Best of Breed (as a finished CH, Bob Bartholomew, Saratoga Cty Fair 2010, Anna Thompson, Southern Vt, 2010) 1 x Best Doe In Show (Anna Thompson, Southern Vt, 2010).

Kidding record: 2007, twin bucks by Lancelot; 2008, twin does by Halifax; 2009, triplet bucks by Appomattox. (Deirdre, I would really like a doe to keep, please...) 2010, quads, 2 does, 2 bucks by Bacchus, see Dido; 2011, single doe by Avatar; 2012, twin bucks by Hallelujah; 2014, twin does by Holy Bull.

April, 2009

July, 2007

August, 2008 (Photos by Lorene Toth.)
June, 2007
October, 2006

June, 2005