Baaaa

When we moved out to our new house in March 2011 I couldn't stop thinking how perfect this house was for some pet goats. Daddy, you, and I worked on building the goat barn during our first summer here. We were lucky to be able to use the wood that had been the horse stalls in the barn from the previous owner. So we created the little red shed for our potential goats. We had our eye on one goat from around Goreville from a friend of a friend. We realized that we couldn't just have one goat since they are herding animals. So I called around and found another goat from a farm in New Dennison We went and picked up our two new goats and brought them home. Merle the white African Pygmy was born in January 2011and we got him in the summer. Mylady was born in the springtime in 2011. She's a Nigerian Dwarf and a sweet heart. We had the people band Merle so we wouldn't have any goat babies. We had built a pen to go with the goat barn but we soon realized that wasn't enough room and we left the gate to their pen open so they could have free roam of our 2 acres and eat all the honey suckle. People have said goats are like chips and once you start it's hard to stop. We visited a petting zoo in Nashville IL called rainbow ranch shortly after getting our goats and found another goat that we were able to buy. That was Maynard and he was a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf. He too was banded so we didn't have babies. We had to work with each of them to make them friendly but they ended up being like outside pet dogs. We ended up getting a 4th goat named Massie several months later to make 2 pairs. Massie was a turd and could jump like crazy and at this point it wasn't cute for them to be able to jump the fence to get in the house. Massie went to a new home and then we took a big Nubian from papa and GG after they decided that goats weren't for them. His name was Bert and although he was a sweetheart he was just too big compared to our little guy and he went to a new home. In December 2012, Maynard showed signs of pain (I'm not sure I can give you the full story here since its still so painful but I will give the highlights). The night we realized something was very wrong with Maynard and we were on the phone with emergency vets, we got another emergency call for our neighbor Bill Holtz - this man deserves a blog all to himself. Since we had moved in we became very close to Bill and his wife Sue. So the call came and we focused our attention on Bill and his family. We lost Bill that night from what I assume as a heart attack. After a long night, your dad had to take Maynard into the vet's office and we discovered he had urinary stones and not much time left. Due to his pain, your dad had to put him down and he brought him back to bury him along our fence line with the numerous kittens that we had found without the mom and we couldn't save them all. The kittens we could save, i took them to a rescue type home and brought back our Madman Miles. Hes the best, fattest cat. Maynard has a nice handmade cross. Maynard was your day's boy and good buds, along with Bill and both are missed so much. Moving back to goats, we ended up getting two more to take our number back to 4. Enter Pippy and Billy. Both are mixes of goats and not really sure of their exact breed. Pippy has a broken tail from her previous home. Billy was an inside goat from Chester and the people realized that wasn't a good idea. After some recent developments like Billy chewing almost every wire under the camper, we now have goats for sale!!! Your dad and I keep going back and forth on whether or not to get rid of them but I am leaving it up to him since he's the one who takes care of them (and has to replace everything they destroy!) you overheard me talking on the phone to my friend Alexis about getting rid of the goats and boy did you get upset. Previously the brake light wires on the trailer for the boat were also consumed by a goat. If anyone ever tells you that goats eat everything, they are mistaken. We still have to mow. They just seem to mistake wires for honey suckle vines!
So there's some history on your goats. Who knows what the future holds for them!
Love you THIS much!