When I was a tyke ( no pun stand for ) , we raisedbaby goatsevery yr . In the spring , we ’d drive up to a goat farm in Occidental , Calif. , and my sidekick , babe and I would each carefully take a baby from among the midget wether goats mill around about in the goat yard . The next season , we ’d return the goats to the farm and work home a new leash of bottle feeders . This croak on until we gain the destiny of our young male goat sidekick . I ’ll leave it up to you to figure it out .
Once we recovered from the horror of learn the truth , we put our tiny feet down and demandedpermanentgoats . My parents compromised by lease us select two goats to keep : One Nubian male , Bucky , chosen for his winning personality ; and I saved up $ 35 to buy a tri - colored Alpine doe , Mia , who would be my 4 - H dairy laughingstock labor .
If you ’ve neverhad Capricorn , I recommend it . They are uproarious creatures , performing comical joke like playing “ King of the Hill ” on Mom ’s VW Bug , masticate all the flowers down to short stems , and trying to eat up the new green shag carpet in the living elbow room . “ They think it ’s grass ! ” I explained to my mother when she press out her dismay at Bucky and Mia attempt to sour her raw carpeting into cud . “ NO GOATS IN THE HOUSE ! ” Mom said sedately , at the top of her lung . I tried to explicate to her that shout frightened the goats and that ’s why Bucky urinate , but she did not seem to be in a frame of head to mind .
Despite their rambunctious behavior , our goats were part of the family . We leveraged their tendency to consume pretty much anything by gage them out to keep the grass down ; we took them for leash walks around town , and prove tying them to our wagon to create a goat pushcart . This was a nonstarter .
woefully , Mia succumbed to pneumonia before achieve breeding age , so I never generate to have my Milk River - caprine animal experience , and I ’m still debate it . My neighbor Allie has goat , raising new kids every year , and when I go see the newbies I get a speculative goat jones . But there ’s the everyday milking to consider , and since I am pretty trusted I ca n’t sneakgoat milkpast the Boy Kid and the Girl Kid , I ’d have to be make a short ton of cheese and yogurt . I raise the mind every year or so , and am systematically vote down . So maybe the butt dream will have to hold off until I retire — or gain the lottery . But one of these day , I ’m going to butt over to Allie ’s and bring home a kid or two . I ’ll just have to fence in off the cars , keep the front door closed , and desire they do n’t unwrap the peak beds . Yes , one can dream .
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