Member-only story
Sleeping in Bathrooms With Goats
A Story of My Sister’s Unending Compassion
“I think she’s going to have her baby tonight! I’m going to bring her inside,” my sister said with concern and excitement as she felt her pregnant goat’s bulging belly and swollen udders.
It was wintertime in Michigan and if the baby was born outside, it would likely freeze to death. She put a rope around the goat's neck and guided her into her overnight location in my sister’s warm bathroom.
She put water and hay in the bathroom for her and tried to leave for bed, but every time my sister tried to leave, the goat would cry out loudly. My sister’s animals tend to be a little extra needy because they are used to all the human attention they receive from her and her family.
Finally, my sister decided that in order to quiet the pregnant goat, she would have to sleep in the bathroom with her. And that’s exactly what she did. Laying on the hard tile floor with a blanket and a pillow, she was the goat’s source of comfort and friendship for the night.
My sister got almost no sleep and her bathroom was a disaster in the morning, with goat turds and pee all over the floor. But my sister wasn’t mad, even though the goat didn’t end up giving birth that night. She had an attitude of “better safe than sorry” and patiently led the…
