This evening, I started really being rewarded for my baby goats. Three of the boys (none of them my bottle-baby girls) came up to me to play. Ayls's big boy and Talla's twins all came up to me when I tapped on top of the ProPlan bin, to play on it and get head-scritchers from me.
I won't say that it makes the memories of heartbreaks disappear, or makes the stress and frustrations somehow meaningless, but it sure helps. Wow, does it ever help.