The sad part of owning animals…

Animals are the BEST… they make me feel so happy, loved & the opposite of lonely ~ whatever that is… hang on I’ll look it up. Wow… there isn’t a word that describes what I mean... 

They have their own totally unique personalities & I consider most of the animals that live here my friends.

So when one of them dies it’s very sad, but I would rather go through the pain of loss than never to have had the pleasure of spending time with these amazing beings. I suppose that’s a spin on Tennyson’s ~ It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

When we bought the farm the first animals we acquired were 3 Angora goats. I found them on Craig’s list ~ the girl looking after them wanted to find them homes otherwise they would have to go to auction… Armed with notes that Dr McPeek had briefed us with the family piled in my amazing mini van & drove miles & miles. 

Arriving at our destination Mike took charge & handled the goats like he knew what he was doing (it was kinda hot!). He looked at all the things that Dr McPeek told us to look at & then glanced at my feet & rolled his eyes… Ok so maybe flip flops weren’t the best choice for barns & farms & goats & poop…

We took 3 Angora goats!! Now we had to get them home… Toyota could really do a commercial of what you can do with a mini van based on footage from our adventures…. A family of 4, 2 bales of hay & 3 Angora goats were merrily speeding along the highway… this is when you think I wonder what a police officer would make of this circus if we got pulled over! I’m pretty sure that’s when my van lost it’s new car smell, or any smell related to car at all… 

2 were twins & born Super Bowl Sunday when Denver & Seattle played ~ & named accordingly. The other was named something weird, I can’t remember what but I think it reminded me of a clown… Let me see if anyone remembers… Oscar did!! He has the memory of un elefante ~ her name was Patches. I’m a bit of a name person… if you know me that makes total sense & ‘Patches’ wasn’t doing it for anyone… My friend’s Step Dad had just passed at the time & I asked where he’d grown up… Brooklyn was the answer & Brooklyn is the name of this gorgeous goat.

These goats have been a source of mischief & amusement!! Getting stuck in places & things… like buckets, nesting boxes, tomato cages, shelves…

A major panic was had when I realised they only had bottom teeth!! We’d bought faulty goats & not been told… Somehow they’d all forgotten to grow top teeth… A quick call to Dr McPeek put it right ~ I didn’t know that ruminants didn’t have top teeth… Yes but Dr McPeek I’m talking about our goats not ruminants!! Ok so goats are ruminants, learn a new thing every day! 

So we have snow at the moment & it’s been around way too long for my liking… my ankle is moaning too making walking tough going. Seattle was all on her own the other evening, that’s not right for a goat… She’s not about to give birth so she must be feeling lousy. Mike carried her to the shed & we gave her fresh hay & water… When I checked in the morning she’d gone to the big pasture in the sky :( Very sad… The ground is frozen solid so a burial was out of the question. I have dabbled in DIY cremation… but that’s only small animals & I didn’t think Seattle would fit in the steel barrel… the last thing I wanted was a smell of cooking meat… I once cremated a pet chicken & didn’t get the fire hot enough… A group came to look at the barn…comments were made about the delicious smell of chicken & someone must be having a BBQ!! OH NOOOOO. I kept my mouth shut ~ how do you go about explaining that?

I double bagged her (which with 4 hooves & big horns is no easy feat). It was very sad ~ all the goats stood around & watched… I could hear then saying 2 legs bad!! then I dragged her to the gate across the snow. This bit was hard because the snow behind the gate had only been cleared to fit a human sideways, not the stiff wide package I had. Bending down to turn the everything sideways I came eye level with Forrest (our bottle fed lamb/sheep) who was very happy to see me & started nibbling my hair. Eventually we squeezed though the opening & I got Seattle in the back of my van, the same one in which she’d arrived :(

We went to the local vets who knew she was coming & the really nice vet cut her ear tag off for me. I said my goodbyes & will pick her up in a tin when I’m called… sigh.