Groton Family Farm's Newest Addition

Warren Burrows has 450 hens, 16 sheep, two mules, two dogs and a goat.  So what’s another goat?

Or two.

Burrows, who owns Groton Family Farm, often meets visitors buying eggs or stopping at the farm for various jobs. His 89-year-old mother has been ill and has a hospital bed, so Burrows got to know the man who repairs beds.

About three weeks ago, the man was fixing her bed and had an odd request.

“He said, ‘They’re having to foreclose on our house and we have to leave town, and I have this goat . . . I know you have a farm here’,” Burrows said.

The goat was pregnant. Burrows said he didn't need the animal, but he'd meet her.

Groton Family Farm has been in Burrows' family for generations.  A relative built the house on the property in 1784, and Burrows' great-grandfather built the barn. It wasn’t always a working farm, though Burrows made it one. About 450 hens run loose in a fenced-in area, and he sells eggs along with vegetables in the spring and fall.

He keeps animals for a purpose, although the animals don't always see it that way. He rescued two Great Pyrenees to protect his sheep from coyotes and his chicken from hawks. The dogs protect the chicken and chase the sheep.

Burrows also rescued two mules who have yet to learn how to pull a plow.

"So they're getting a free lunch also," he said. Burrows keeps sheep for wool, and a goat named Henry for entertainment.

Burrows is a hand surgeon at Pequot Medical Center, so he has patients two days a week and operates one day a week. Still, he drove out to meet the goat named Buttercup.

 “She was just very friendly," he said. " A calm, friendly goat.”  Two days later, he brought her to the farm.

The following morning, Burrows awoke to find she’d given birth to a kid. The kid weighed about 9 pounds,  and was born late Feb. 23 or early Feb. 24. One of the nurses Burrows works with suggested the name Lulu.

“It’s become quite the community event,” he said.

Classes from the Groton Public Schools visit the farm every year and Burrows said the children will enjoy Buttercup and Lulu.

"I think I'm going to start calling myself 'Noah'," he said. "I've got two of everything."