We got goats!Why you may ask. Well, as most of you know. I LOVE goats. I had my first goat, Boomer, when I was 15. He was a pygmy. Fun critter. Then several years ago we had a small dairy herd. Loved that but sold them because milking is such a commitment of time and energy and I just worried myself to death over the ladies.
So here we are again. This time Jody actually suggested the goats! For real. The idea is to have esthetically pleasing property maintenance. I suppose I COULD have gotten a really tall, young, ripped, Latino gardener.....but no....I got goats! LOL.
So here they are- newly renamed- Tofu and Jesse.Here they are all cute. Here they are all comfy in their paddock. Here they are all content with full bellys.
Hold onto your seats because here comes the STORY of a lifetime!Before I get started let me say up front...
Cathy (the previous owner of these lovely goats) I am VERY sorry for traumatising you with what follows. Hang in there. It ends well ;)
Sooooooo- Cathy, a very nice lady in Whitney Point kindly responded to my Craigslist add for small goats. She was very generous to offer us two of her nice Nigerian Dwarfs to start our little herd. Vayda, Maya Rae and Vayda's friend Jesse (yes the goat is named after him) all took the 1.5 hr drive out to her house to collect the goats. We hooked them to the luggage hooks in the back of the mini van and headed home. The drive was uneventful. They did really well. No issues at all. :) Great. We drop off Jesse (the boy) in T-burg and arrive home in the late afternoon. Vayda and I review our plan to transplant the goats into their vast, beautiful, newly re-fenced pasture. Worried that they might start to get fussy in the van as we spent 30 min making sure the fence was just so we decided to tie the black goat to the cattle panel, outside of the pasture. We got that done no prob. BUT- as we were tending Jesse (the goat) we turned to see Tofu BUST out of his collar and make a dash across the yard. He smashed through the electric fence (which was not yet on) and off around the field. I didn't completely panic as I knew we had the other one tied and the loose one would come back to be with his partner. That's just what happened. Tofu returned within a few moments looking quiet nervous. Well this excited, nervous energy set Jesse off making him pull and jerk at his leash. Then I saw it! The silver ring on the collar seemed oddly shaped. ??? It was! It was stretching out into a 'J'. In virtual slow mo I reached for the collar and just as my fingers touched ...BANG...the ring let loose and off went Jesse!!!! Both goats were GONE! And I mean GONE!!!! Across the yard, the field, the ROAD- that's 96A- a major road with rush hour traffic! A 1/2 mile one way. A 1/2 mile the other way.
Now I am panicking! I nearly burst out crying right there. I yelled at Maya Rae to get in the house. I expected to hear the screech of tires and the slat of goat under a mac truck at any moment and the best I could do was to protect Maya from witnessing it. Vayda and just focused on finishing that fence work. I just kept in my mind the FACT that they would be back and we needed the fence ready when they did.
Then a pick up truck pulls in. "You missin some goats?" "Yep, that's us". The guy leaves. 10 min pass and the Seneca County Sheriffs SUV pulls in. A officer approaches. Before he can speak I say, "We are having a little crisis here". We talk over the options. At that moment the goats are still on the other side of the road now standing by the depot fence. The best I can think is to ask the officer to find a way to open the depot fence entrance and let the goats go in. "If they join the deer inside the 400 acre fence they will be safe and the drivers will be safe." I would loose out but at least no one gets killed over this. He says he doesn't have the authority to open the fence but he'll go over there and try to drive them across the road safely. Fine.
At that moment a pick up truck pulls up in front of the goats who are still standing at the depot entrance. A man and 13 yr old boy get out and approach the goats apparently with the intention of corning and grabbing them. By the time the police officer got over there the goats were on the move again. Back down the road they went. With police lights flashing, the boy and now Vayda chasing and traffic in both directions stopped dead the goats bolt across the road to the neighboring field.
The pick up follows, then the SUV and the runners. The next 40 min brought the pick up doing donuts in the field and the runners trying to cut them off and run them back to our yard. The officer had pulled part of the fence down with the intention of driving them back into our pasture. Knowing I would be pretty useless in a chase I mostly stood by waiting to plug in the electric the instant the goats entered the fence.
At one point the goats got near our yard but then turned back and bolted back in the other direction and fully across the connecting field (1/2 mile away). The truck did more donuts. At one point the truck stopped dead but the goats kept moving, running UNDER the truck and the one with horns got stuck in the underbelly of the truck. The guy pulled him out but then he bolted again! They headed for the wooded edges of the rail bed down the road. One goat got stuck in the bramble but the runners got stuck worse! As one guy reached for the stuck goat....bam...he was off again. The two ran to the next field where they were met with two pick trucks doing donuts! Then they hit the pavement and run, run, run! Everyone got in their vehicles. Now there are several beyond the two pick ups and the Sheriffs SUV. The two make it nearly to the end of the road, to neighbor Madeline's. There lives several goats and other critters.
The goats high tail it into her yard. Now there are more than 11 people, three large frantic dogs barking, an out of control full sized donkey screaming a warning, children shouting and running- and the cop calls for back up..........ON THE SCANNER!!!!!...that every 3rd house has out here....so every flippin person in Seneca County knows of this outrageous FIASCO the Norton's have created!!!! s-i-g-h....
Then- Finally- the poor goats are exhausted (and surely delirious with fear) and a two guys manage to pin the black one down and get a leash on him. He didn't fight back when they lifted him into the pick up bed. The nice boy who ran all this time and distance managed to wrangle the brown one by himself, hanging on for dear life for a time because everyone was so enthralled with the capture of the black one that they did see this kid struggling. There was a run to rescue both boy and goat, another leash and lift.
The story ends with the officer, the pick ups, the runners (including Vayda who is now frozen and having an asthma attach) returning to the house with the two goats and a ton of strong commands on how to properly fence a goat (Dudes! I never even got them inside the fence! ;)
The tired critters where gently (for what it was worth at that point) placed inside the garage with hay and water and locked up for the night.
Today I turned the paddock into a 5 point security facility and Vayda and I transplanted them in there until they become acclimated to us and we can turn them out onto the pasture.
Geesh!!!!
I am sooooo grateful they are ok after all that. Obviously they are nervous but I am thankful there no injuries.
Now that this story is on the web...what are the chances I will find another goat on Craigslist?
While eating our picnic lunch Maya said that we must look like a picture of a very happy and healthy family. I suppose we did :)
Though I have pointed out these very rocks every time we've hiked her for 10 yrs- this time Maya was suddenly interested in the rock formations, water patterns and sediment as if she was seeing it for the first time. She had 100 questions that I was delighted to answer.
She brought her own camera along too.
This is her favorite pose currently. Wont miss this stage when its passed. ;p
At the Tues play group Maya Rae learned to make a real, working kite from paper and dowels. Pretty cool!