Cuddlers wanted to hang out with baby goats
ESMONT, Va. -- At the Caromont goat cheese farm in southern Virginia, this is the time of year when baby goats run wild, and the handful of employees are run ragged.
About a hundred goats were born there in less than two weeks. "It's a lot of work and very little sleep," one worker said, "but it's worth it."
Desperate for help, owner Gail Hobbs-Page advertised on Facebook for volunteer baby goat cuddlers. She wasn't expecting much.
"The thing took off," Hobbs-Page said. Her post went viral, as they say. "I didn't even know what that meant."
So far they've had over 2,000 responses from all ages. Ashley Eckle's daughter Stella found a match made in goat heaven -- a goat also named Stella.
Hobbs-Page also has to care for 130 mama goats, including their daily walk. One goat, named Zimmer, was about to give birth when CBS News visited.
"She's looking like she has about three. This is the year of the triplet," Hobbs-Page said.
Volunteers are still calling, from as far away as California and Australia. "We are dazzled and sometimes dazed by it."
Hobbs-Page says there is a purpose to cuddling baby goats.
"When they become milkers for the cheese operation, they're easier to handle. If we didn't do this on some level, you couldn't get your hands on them. They'd just run away."
But she's also learned something else.
"I'm not quite sure they need the cuddling as much as the people need to cuddle."
