In the hopes of not being overrun by goats, keeping some sense of sanity within our way too “tightly knit” goat family during mating season, and helping to avoid baby goats that might fit perfectly in scenes from Deliverance (we’ve already got one that’s a bit googly), we finally broke down and gave away two of our female goats today. Fast Freddy the 3-legged goat and one of the newer baby twins (not sure if it was Squeaker or Nake yet) went to live with friends in Thomasville.
It probably couldn’t have happened soon enough for Freddy who spent the last several days fending off very aggressive advances from four large billy goats, one with horns. We’ll see if her attempt at abstinence was successful come spring. And it will certainly make things easier on the baby twin goat as she only had a couple of months before she became a target as well. And well, things are a little quieter and calmer tonight which is nice for us, but I’m sure short-lived considering our goats go into heat not once, not twice, but three times a year — woohoo! But we’ll take some goat peace no matter how brief after spending late last night repairing the 16′ gate one of the males had battered for hours continuously and persistently, then knocked off its hinges, in frustration, attempting to get to Freddy who was safely on the other side for a while.
So how do you catch a goat who spends its days running free and “wild” (for all intents and purposes) across 5 acres? Well, allow the following imagery to answer that question. Think…
- Greased pig chasing contest
- Tackle football
- 2 grown men
- 9 goats
- 1 ass, of course I mean Sonic the donkey!
John said he had visions of glory days of yore, faking left, no right, making a successful tackle and bringing the opponent to the ground. These opponents were much faster, much smaller, but shown no more mercy. And of course, me without the video camera. I need some sort of helmet cam for this type of event which seems to come along way too often. Note: no animals were harmed in this activity, unless you count John’s aching butt, back and knee.
Once realizing they had met their match, the goats were easily loaded into a kennel and toted to their new home which I’m sure will be a happy one, so no sadness on this end although we will miss them. We do retain visitation rights.
Freddy and Nake (or is it Squeaker?) have been settled into their new home and seem to be happy in their deluxe 2 room shelter. They were introduced to their guard dog, Tanby, yesterday evening who gave them a good sniffing. The “Unloading of the Goats” was an event that drew the interest of my parents and brought them up from the “Big House”. My Dad maaa’d at them and Squeaker (or is it Nake?) maaa’d right back. Apparently Dad speaks goat. They’ll have plenty of love and attention here on “The Compound”. Feel free to come visit them anytime!
I just got back from vacation. I really enjoyed the above update. Hope all is well with Yannis’ butt, knee and everything else that hurts.