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| This is the time of year when many of us have bottle babies of one kind or another sharing our abodes. Some folks keep them in playpens, some in dog show exercise pens, some even house them in huge Rubbermaid tubs--John and I keep ours in large wire-style dog crates. As I write, two baby goats are snoozing in crates right behind me. People say, "Aren't they smelly?" Not a bit. That's because I bed them on large pieces of old bed blankets folded to fit their crates and I change the blanketing whenever it gets damp or soiled. Overnight I place old towels under the layers of blanketing and that keeps things reasonably tidy until morning. This works until a kid or lamb is six to seven weeks old and by then they're ready to move out to the barn with their peers. Part of the fun of raising bottle babies indoors is letting them loose to race about the house. Their joyous antics are always good for a laugh! However, it's not so great when they pee on the carpets (baby "beans" aren't a problem if there are house dogs in the picture and if not, they're dry enough to be sucked up by the Dustbuster) or worse, on your bed. What to do? Diaper 'em while they're on the loose! Ewe lambs and doelings can be fitted with el cheapo disposable diapers from the dollar store (but be sure to trim out a hole for their tails). These stay on doelings with their upright tails to hold things on; ewe lambs require a bit more monitoring. A boy--ram lamb or buckling--can be diapered by wrapping a newborn-size disposable diaper around his waist, secured by a string across the back (tie an alligator on both ends of the string--perfect!). Or, and this is what we do, use a launderable fabric diaper designed for male dogs that mark in the house. These are designed to hold a maxi pad with wings, so they're very, very effective. Buy them at pet stores or from Pat Canipe of Custom Pet and Tack (http://www.custompetandtack.homestead.com/index.html), who designed and custom made the male diapers we use. One tip: when bucklings get big enough to start standing with their front legs up on walls and furniture, their diapers tend to slide back toward their hips. To remedy that we made Uzzi and Martok (our current bottle boys) simple harnesses consisting of a leather strap split just far enough for their heads to go through, so that when wearing them the harnesses resemble tiny equine breast collars; they fasten to the diaper via alligator clips on both ends (I'll attach two pictures to illustrate what I mean). Sue
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