10/02/2026
September's Employee of the Month goes to....Gladys!!
This month's Employee of the Month has been a saga almost a year in the making and our very own episode of Muarry......but the DNA tests are in and we can finally say....Bourbon.....you are NOT the father!
Gladys' story starts like most questionable back alley deals.....on Craigslist. While trying to sell one of our little Boer doelings, I came across someone looking to trade Gladys. I messaged the person, we set a time for me to come and then I drove almost 3hrs. However, when I arrived, the lady grabbed my goat, handed me Gladys on a leash, tied my goat to a tree and then proceeded to walk into her house, slam the door and never return. The only thing I managed to get out of her was that she thought Gladys was ugly. After driving almost 3hrs the entire exchange took less than 2 minutes!
Well...this was the start to the most stressful breeding season Red Heeler Farm has ever experienced! I kept thinking there had to be something wrong with her because clearly the lady was lying to me when she called her ugly! Maybe she was aggressive, old or a fence jumper, but nope....none of the above.
....fast-forward to about 2 weeks before her due date. I come home on a cold, windy February night to Gladys standing in the barnyard with two babies lying on the ground! (For those that don't know, anything born more than a week early is usually considered a miscarriage in goats!)
To my poor husband's terror, but probably not complete surprise, I screamed and leaped out of our still moving car.
15 minutes later, we had Gladys and not one, but two enormous, beautiful and perfectly healthy twin bucklings tube fed and warm in their own private barn stall!
After the excitement of kidding, calving and puppy seasons calmed down and some of my brain returned, I started to notice that our miracle babies...the babies that should have been a miscarriage...were twice the size of most of the kids the same age, not weak and frail like one would expect. Gladys' mysterious origin didn't help matters.
For a few months, I went back and forth arguing with myself before I couldn't take anymore. They only way to know for sure would be do a 'Goat Paternity Test' if such a thing even existed. Low and behold such a thing did exist!
How does one do a Goat Paternity Test, you ask?
According to the instructions, in just three easy steps. Simply collect chest hairs with the roots attached, mail and wait for the results! Sounds simple enough until you meet the 300lb p*e soaked wreckingball of goat that is our breeding buck Bourbon.....did I mention he hates being touched...oh and the massive 2ft horns!
Well, all I can say is, it is a good thing those horns can double as handles....and Bourbon secretly LOVES raspberries!
All this is to say to say we really hit the jackpot with Gladys! She gave us two new nice little bucks to keep and add into our breeding program...now DNA confirmed not to be related to any of the doelings we keep from Bourbon!
If you have made this far, thank you, and we hope you enjoyed Gladys' story!
