The Newest Member Of Our Flock

We have been planning to get a few goats to help us with the blackberries that are taking over and we brought home our first last night. He's a seven month old Boer mix.

JD's co-worker raises them for meat but this little guy was so friendly, his family demanded that he go to a to a home where he'd be a pet! I'm a vegetarian so we assured them he'd have a long and happy life with us.

He was just like our yellow lab, Henry, when we brought him home - scared and loud! He sounded so upset, I felt terrible even though this was going to be a much better situation for him, not to mention a longer situation.

He had no way of knowing that of course. All he knew is that he was ripped away from his family, crammed into a box (Henry's crate), then taken for a long, windy, noisy ride on the back of some monster (our diesel pickup). Next, he was abandoned in a totally unfamiliar pasture with another funny-smelling animal who made weird noises at him (the llama). And it was full dark to boot!

We put lots of hay in his new little shed and talked to him a bunch and even gave him some grain as a treat. When we finally went in, I swear he sounded like he was being butchered then and there!

He finally settled down after a few hours but I slept very lightly all night worried that he would get eaten by a coyote or tangled in the fence trying to escape. When JD got up to go to work this morning he was, of course, fine and yelling for attention.

I got up a few hours later (I'm recovering from a broken leg so I'm off work for several months), I went out and he did the same thing. I hobbled around the pasture with him showing him all the blackberries and stuff that he could eat. He stayed right with me the whole time! I guess being with a stranger in a strange land is still better than being alone in a strange land....

I went back in for a while and he stood by the gate bleating off an on for about an hour! So I dragged a chair out into the pasture and sat with him for a little while and he quieted right down. He'd wander over and eat some hay and then come back and chew and gurgle at me for a while.

Henry and The Goat (no name yet) are still trying to figure each other out. And the llama, Maya, isn't sure what to do with this little noisy creature either. She's pretty skittish in any case and this isn't helping. I'm hoping they'll get along okay and keep each other company until we can get a pal for The Goat. Maya's mom died a few weeks ago and I haven't decided if she misses her or if she's just happy to have all the food to herself! I think she likes company: we let our neighbor run his cows in the other pasture and Maya frequently hangs around them. So maybe they'll get to be friends soon. Llamas are supposed to be good watchdogs - er, llamas - which would help keep those coyotes at a distance.

Our next task is to get a collar and chain for him so we can take him around to all the blackberry brambles. That's going to be a fun chore - gotta go take the goat for a walk!