A Goat

I am not a fan of goats.  I know there are a lot of goat lovers out there but I am not one of them.  When researching what animals to start with I read a lot of articles on how goats were hard on fencing, mischievous, and comparing goats to devils.  Sheep on the other hand, while they are not very smart, they really are sweet, great followers. 

Our friends were moving and needed a safe place for their pigmy goat while they were moving.  We thought no problem we will put it in with our sheep for a few days.  Friday afternoon they arrived with the goat.  It’s cute.  The owner says if we want it we can keep it. 

Darling Husband says how cute it is and maybe we should keep it.

 I say NO, I did my research and decided against goats! 

He says well maybe.

 It is cute but no!

 We put a rope halter on the goat and made the walk to the sheep’s enclosure.  The goat fights us the whole way but it isn’t used to being on a halter.  Put it in with our sheep and right away BAM BAM BAM the goat starts head butting my sweet kind sheep.  We watched for a few minutes with the sheep huddled in the corner and decided it wasn’t going to get better while we watched so we walked away.  As we walked away it started making these maaing noises that are terribly nasally and nasty.  Sheep have nice baaing noises compared to the goat.  

Every time we checked the sheep were huddled in a corner and the goat was standing in front every once in a while charging them.  At 10:pm we checked on everyone for the last time and watched the goat give one last charge and head but to the sheep.  Darling Husband said “THAT’S IT! The goat will not abuse our sheep anymore!” and we took the goat to the old sheep enclosure.  It was by itself, our sheep are safe, the goat is safe. 

Pens that work for sheep do not work for goats.  The sweet sheep lived in that pen for months without a problem.  The goat lived in it a few days and banged out the sides the last straw was twice it got its head and horns stuck one time Teen Son and I were able to get it unstuck the second time I called it’s owners because I couldn’t get the horns back through the fence.  We will not become goat owners any time soon!