Nino's Hope: A preview
Ok, so I enjoy writing. I've started several blogs and have kept a journal since I was 9. But, I'm not so prolific, organized or disciplined in my writing which means I'm a lazy writer I guess. But I don't want to be. I want to be disciplined and I want to use this gift/way-which-I-seem-to-best-process-life to bless someone else if the One who does that would do that. So, in recent months I've set out to blog more regularly, and write an intentional story or book of somekind. With Christmas approaching I feel particularly inspired and wrote a short book for my sons and neices and nephews... and anyone else who may be blessed by it... which you can find here. And having Nubians is such a joy to me, I don't think I could really process the blessing they are and share that blessing with others as fully as I could without writing something about them.
I love the Bible. I love the promises of God and the confidence they bring in looking forward in life. The combination of my love for the scriptures and my enjoyment of my Nubians has inspired me to write a short story (at least I think it'll be a short story): Nino's Hope. I've been scratching down thoughts for a couple days but today I sat down and wrote for a good couple hours and I just wanted to share it with you. So, here's a preview of Nino's hope. Enjoy.
Nino's Hope
by Sheila Dougal
On a small ranch in the Sonoran desert of Arizona lives a herd of dairy goats raised by a lone rancher named Rico.
Rico isn’t the main character in this story. In fact, you’ll hardly hear about Rico again until the end of the story. But that’s not where we’ll start. We’ll start at the beginning.
The beginning goes a long way back. I mean 6 thousand years back. This could be a very long story.
But before we start at the beginning, let me introduce you to Nino. Nino is Rico’s resident wether. He lives on the goat ranch with about 25 other Nubian goats. He’s the only wether. Most wethers are sent for slaughter and end up in Rico’s freezer, but when Nino was born, Rico set him aside to be raised by his dam along with the other bucklings and does that were born that year. Nino wasn’t anything special. He was just a plain dark brown goat with long brown ears. He didn’t have any special markings but he was the goat Rico chose to be a herd-mate to the others. He would be the one to stay with the kids when they were separated from their dams at night. He would be the one to stay with a goat being quarantined for some reason. He would be as close to a pet as a dairy goat on a ranch in the desert can be to a rancher like Rico.
Because Nino is a wether and even though he’s the goat in the herd who makes all the new kids and sick goats and lonely goats feel safe and secure, he doesn’t have much respect among the herd.
Chisel is Nino’s dam, and even she doesn’t tolerate him sharing space with her at the hay trough. Nino eats last or with the goats who also have a low rank in the herd’s hierarchy. And it’s really not just because Nino is a wether. It’s because of the stories Nino tells and the glimmer in his eye and the happy confidence he has when he tells his stories to the other goats in the herd. (Yes, goats talk. Not the way you think. It’s not like when you go in at night they all start flapping their lips and speaking English to each other. No, but they do talk. If you could enter their world, and have goat ears... if you were a goat you’d hear their conversation. But since your’e a human you can’t so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)
Rico’s herd is a majestic group of Nubians. They hold their heads high, and walk with elegance. And their attitude is the same. They’re very proud animals. So when Nino starts in about how 6 thousand years ago their great, great, great, great, great (you get the idea) ancestors were selected to foreshadow the coming of the Great Sacrifice and how their generations were leading to the day when the Leopard Prophecy would come true and the One Who Makes All Things New would restore them to their gentle, stately and safe position in creation, he doesn’t get a very kind or welcoming reception. Except for a handful of dreamy-eyed kids and a couple of lead does in the herd who under secret of night ask to hear the stories again, Nino’s stories are rejected by the herd as nonsense. But that doesn’t stop Nino. He just keeps on telling the stories.
“Start from the beginning Nino! Please! Please!” Cesca squeeled.
Francesca (Cesca for short) was the youngest of the kids that had been born 2 months earlier in a late spring kidding at the end of May. She was a looker! Her dam, Dominique, was the queen of the herd, and she bore her mothers beautiful roan and white paint coat. Even at 2 months you could see that she was going to have her mother’s excellent body to produce lots of rich and creamy milk.
Dominique tolerated her daughter hanging out with the other kids around Nino because she really had no choice. Once the kids were separated from their dams in the evening, Nino had them all to himself to tell his treasured stories. But during the day, when the herd was all together, Francisca would have to sneak over to the shady spot under the Mesquite tree where Nino and the other handful of goats who really believed Nino’s stories would gather to listen. But she never got to stay for very long because as soon as Dominique realized Francesca was missing, she would let out a cry for her and set off looking to find her.
Since it was a fairly small ranch and there weren’t very many trees or places to hide, it usually didn’t take very long for Dominique to find Francesca, nudge her firmly in the side with her hard head, and force her to return to the rest of the more “noble” does in the herd. Her most common chastisement of Francesca went something like this:
Francesca! What are you doing here with this worthless, nameless, dreamer? Don’t you even think about believing this Nino’s Hope nonsense! It’s nonsense. You are the progeny of a queen. An award winning, elite dairy Nubian does not waste her time lying around listening to a castrated kid-sitter tell fanatical stories about leopards lying peacefully with goats! Now get back to the rest of the herd! And Darlina, I will be informing your dam that you too have been found here with the dreamer.
Dominique's sister, Darla, was the second in rank amongst Rico’s Sonoran Queen does. And Dominique would find every reason to remind Darla that she was indeed second. Not first. Darlina, Darla's daughter, made it easy for her. She was a true Nino’s Hope believer. She hung on every word of every story Nino told and she was unashamed. Darla was a secret believer. She knew the prophecy. She’d heard it from her mom who had heard it from her mom and so on. She believed it but she feared the loss of honor amongst the proud does she came from and lived with. Dominique had heard it too, but she rejected it as a fairytale and spent her time in shows and on milk tests and held tightly to the pride of the breed...
More coming soon.
