Good morning everybun! I’m sorry for the delay in posting; I have really had my hands full with babies over the past week. This is going to be a long blog posting because a LOT has happened in the past week, but Cassie’s story is so inspiring that I want to share it with you in detail.

So, if you’ve been keeping up with our story, you’ll know that Cassie has had problems from Day One. She was the last one born, chilled and on the wire, and is genetically what we call a “peanut.” (Briefly explained in the previous blog posting.) She also had her tail bitten off on Day 3, by accident I’m sure. As you’ll recall, I started hand-feeding her goat’s milk twice a day in an attempt to save her once I saw her wasting away in competition for mother’s milk with her three, much bigger and stronger siblings.

So, on Day 6 I had to sit down and do some thinking. The previous night’s feeding had been painful for Cassie and nothing short of agonizing for me. She was constantly aspirating the milk into her tiny nose and sneezing and choking it out, and I was trying my best to avoid it, pleading with her just to sip it drop by drop. Beyond that, even with everything I was trying to do with her, she had simply stopped growing and developing. She was not developing fur, she was not getting any bigger, and her siblings were outpacing her at a rapid rate.

I started to wonder if my intervention was more harmful than helpful. The standard breeder advice from those who have been involved in the hobby much longer than I is sad, but simple: ‘Don’t try to save peanuts. PEANUTS CANNOT BE SAVED.’ I wondered if I was only prolonging my own heartache and her unhappy life by intervening against Mother Nature. It may seem cruel, but I do understand where that breeder advice comes from. Peanuts are at a genetic disadvantage from the very beginning. As I said in my previous blog posting, I have never, EVER heard of one surviving without human intervention, and even then, the survival rate is depressingly low.

I’m a big believer in Mother Nature. I often trust the judgement of my Mommas, because they know their babies so much better than I do. But I didn’t know if I could reconcile stepping back and letting nature take its course. (I’m the kind of girl that shoos spiders and moths out of the house with a magazine and a helpful suggestion of “Why don’t you get some fresh air outside?”) So I found myself at a crossroads: being both stubborn and dedicated, I was determined not to give up on her. But after hours of late-night research, a little voice in the back of my head began to wonder if I was doing her a disservice. Did I have to be cruel to be kind?

As you can see, it was an agonizing decision--but I decided to step back, pray hard, and let Nature take its course.

Now here’s where her story becomes REALLY inspiring...

On Day 7, I ventured outside to check on the babies and lo and behold, her belly appeared to be full and she was wiggling around the nest with her siblings! I was surprised and absolutely delighted, but held off on doing the happy dance until a few more days had gone by.

Well folks, we are now on Day 12 and I am sufficiently in awe of God, Mother Nature, and my little heart-thief Cassie. BLESSED BE! Each day, I have been utterly thrilled to see more and more growth and progress from her. As you can see in the photo above, she has developed an adorable baby coat of fur (and changed color on me too--I think she’s either a broken chocolate or a broken tort now.) Her little tail stump is healing nicely, and she is always snuggling around with her siblings and appears to be well fed. She is even now venturing out of the nest to explore with her brothers and sisters!

Granted, she is definitely still the smallest of the bunch and I expect her to be about 3 days behind Kern, Connifer and Blondielocks in development (Kern and Connifer opened their eyes yesterday). But, she continues to hang tight with us and not give up! She seems to recognize me, because every time I pick her up she nuzzles right into my hand and starts licking me. I don’t know what the key to her survival was (although it’s important to remember that we’re not entirely out of the woods yet and won’t be until at least 8 weeks of age). Did I help her “get over the hump” during the few days that I was hand-feeding her? Would all peanuts survive if given that short-term assistance? I am certain that she would have perished if I hadn’t intervened. Could Cassie be a true CHALLENGE to the previously accepted “Breeder’s Rule” with regards to peanuts? Or is she just one in a million, beating the odds for survival and life?

I don’t know. I don’t have the answers yet. With the breeds that I raise, though, I am sadly certain that I will have more opportunities to test these theories. Peanuts are almost a certainty in all of our litters, so you can be sure that I’ll be doing the exact same thing next time around. Maybe, quite accidentally, Cassie and I will have found a way to change the way that breeders think about peanuts.

So, suffice it to say that I could not be more thrilled, and so thankful to everyone who has supported us thus far. We have been fortunate enough to have people all over the WORLD praying for her. Keep it up, friends and fans, and I will promise to keep you updated on her.

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