Things that are addictive...

In April we brought a mama goat and her buckling to our little farm. We'd never had goats before. I had NO idea how much I would like them. Luna, the mama goat, has particularly won my heart. She snuggles. I had no idea a goat would snuggle. We also very much like having goat milk available. But since Luna is nursing her buckling, sometimes he gets what I consider to be "my" share of the milk! I was recently perusing the "swap" paper, (a very dangerous pastime!) and found a goat for sale that looked interesting to me. We went to meet her last week. She has a similar personality to Luna's, it seems, and is giving two quarts of milk a day.

We arranged to buy her, but we were not quite sure how to get her home. Then I had the bright idea that if I cleaned all the junk out of the back seat of my truck (stacks of magazines, random trash, piles of books, and other things that did NOT belong there!) I could flip the seats up and the goat could stand in the narrow space that would create. Eureka!

I'd like to say she hopped right in, but that would be massaging the truth a bit. Still, it wasn't too difficult to convince her that a ride in a F150 might be nice. Once in she rode like a seasoned traveler. There were no inconvenient "potty" problems, she never made a sound, and didn't seem in the slightest bit distressed.

Joy, the very nice lady who sold us the goat, said that ideally we would let the goats get to know each other gradually over several days. If I had a barn I could have put the new goat in a stall and let the other goats visit over a partition so they could get to know each other. She said if they were put right together there would be head butting and unpleasantness while they worked out who the herd queen is going to be. But I didn't have a way to keep the separated for a few days. So all the way home I visualized the goats getting along nicely, being happy to meet each other. I reminded myself of the rule we have here that everyone must get along. With hesitation in my heart I led the new goat out to the pasture and stood by to see how things would go.

There were a few head butts. Luna is here on the left, looking quite acrobatic. The new goat in on the right, looking like, "Oh you must be joking. I outweigh you by 40 pounds and can't you see I am as regal as a goat can be?"

And then they all went out for a nice lunch. The new goat charmed me by dining on thistles, a plant the other animals refuse to touch, and one I would like to have far fewer of in my pasture. A little rain shower kicked up and all three goats wandered into the shed to wait it out. And now...

More grazing. I think everyone is going to be getting along just fine. We are very excited to have a new goat!