Stories

Hungry!

It was December 22nd and I was a little bit late to feed Rusty due to a National Junior Honor Society meeting.  He heard the outside gate open and starting screaming his little head off at me. It's almost like he was saying "Hey! Hurry up and feed me!" I opened his pen and he ran right up to it and just stared at me. I sat down on the table he has in there, and he starting hitting me with his hooves. It looked like he was trying to dig into my skin. Then he started chewing on my shirt! He must've been really hungry! When I got up to get his food, he followed me out of the gate and stared at me while I got his pellets out of the bag. The lesson being, don't be late to feed your goat or they will never let you hear the end of it.

Ukulele

Whenever Rusty first came to the barn, I would sing to him because I thought it was funny. One day, I thought that I should bring my ukulele to the barn and it would be awesome. The goats would be listening intently like videos I see on Youtube. The opposite happened. I brought the ukulele and started tuning it in the car. Then I came out and fed Rusty his pellets. I sat down on the table and started playing.  Rusty could've cared less! He was just eating and he wasn't giving the ukulele a second thought. On the other hand, the goat in the stall next to me stood on her table and was staring at me. I walked over to her and played for her instead of Rusty. She was a pretty good audience member and even started bleating along with me!

A New Bed

I bought Rusty a new feeder online and took the time to assemble it. I thought to myself. "Rusty is gonna love this! It keeps his food off the ground so he can't poop in it and it can hold hay too! This is great!" The very second that I brought it to the barn, I hung it on the wall and put pellets and hay in it. I was so proud of it! A couple days later, I stood outside the barn to see if Rusty would pop his head out of the gate and yell at me like he always did. He was nowhere to be seen! I called his name, but still, no response. I then walked into the barn and see Rusty LAYING in his new feeder! I couldn't stop laughing! That had to have been uncomfortable! Not only that, but he POOPED in it too! 

After this, my dad decided that Rusty might want a raised platform so he put a little corner bed out of scrap wood he found on the back porch. After a couple days, Rusty got used to it and jumped on it for a few seconds. Now, he loves it and jumps to and from it all the time. When it's cold, I like to put blankets in there so Rusty can snuggle with them when he's cold. Seemed like a good idea, right? 

I think he liked the cushion opposed to the hard wood bottom. I spent a lot of time getting that bed to look nice for him. I know it's better for the bed to be functional than to look nice, but Rusty made me sure of it.

Picky Eater

I'm sure you've seen the movies and the TV shows where goats are eating shirts, tires, cans, books, etc. This is actually a stereotype. Goats are pretty picky eaters. When I walked Rusty, I wanted to give him rewards that I could keep in my pocket and just take out every time he did something good. I started with carrots. I've seen goats eat carrots before, so I thought, "If goats will eat anything, why not a carrot?" I brought a bag of carrots for him and held one out in my hand for him to eat. He walked around my hand and started sniffing around my face. He then licked my hair and started chewing on my hair! My hair! I pushed him away from me and held my hand in front of his mouth. He smelled the carrot, but refused to eat it. Next, were cucumbers and celery leaves. Rusty took one good lick at the cucumber but decided that he would not be eating it. He nibbled of the very tip of the celery leaf, but he wouldn't eat the rest of it! Lettuce, apple slices, and broccoli. Wouldn't touch them. I even gave the broccoli to the other goat owners to see if they wanted to try it with their goats. Neither of the other goats would touch the broccoli either. I guess that's something that humans and goats have in common! After all of this, my dad searched up foods that goats like. Apparently pine needles are good for goats, but they can't eat the pine cones. I put pine needles into Rusty's feeder and let me tell you... He went to town on those needles! Apparently, pine needles are a natural parasite killer in the goat intestines. I didn't know he would like pine needles opposed to apples, but the more you know! 

Stuck in the Middle

Shortly after I got Rusty, I knew I had to start lead training him. The very second I got that rope halter out, he got scared and hid in between two boards in the pen behind his feeder. I used it as sort of a cattle chute for him. A cattle chute squeezes the cow and it calms them down if they're getting medical attention. When Rusty goes behind there, I just slide the lead on, tighten it, and pull him out one leg at a time. Now, I don't know if he trusts me a little more or if he just got too fat, but he doesn't go back there very often anymore. He has grown so much since the beginning. It's amazing to watch him grow!

Spa Day

A week before the fair, I gave Rusty a bath, a haircut, and a hoof trimming. Let me tell you, not only did Rusty get a bath, but I did too! First, we gave him a bath to get all the dirt off his fur and skin and to soften up his hair so the blades don't get worn down. Then, we blow dried him so he wouldn't be wet. Cutting wet hair is also bad for the blades. Then we gave him the actual haircut. He did NOT like the vibration or the buzzing sound of the razor. But, somehow, we got through it. After he got his haircut, we gave Rusty a hoof-trimming. It doesn't hurt them, but he acted like we were chopping his feet off. 

Fair Week

Fair week is always the most busy week out of the exhibitor's year. You've got check-in, the show, the auction, clean-up day. Every day is an adventure. There's always a lot going on and it's very exciting. The day that Rusty came into the fairgrounds, he could not stay still at all. He's always wants to move around, but when he found out his goat-girlfriend was in the same pen... He was on full throttle! The cutest parts were when we would sometimes catch the two of them snuggled up and sleeping. Show day was crazy! We gave him another bath. He hated it so much, he pressed against the wall and wouldn't even let me wash his other side off! Blow-drying was a nightmare too. Every goat exhibitor was running and making sure everything was ready for the show that evening. The actual show itself was a lot quicker than I had imagined. It was very fun and a lot of it was me trying to make sure Rusty didn't rear up and kick me to death. We got third place! Shortly after that, was the showmanship competition. Rusty was very well-behaved, but I don't think he liked standing still for that amount of time. As I was walking back, he was pulling and pulling to go back home and see his little goat-girlfriend again. Auction night was even more intense than show night was because EVERY exhibitor was running around getting stuff ready, not just goat people. Steers, heifers, pigs, goats, were everywhere. It was a very stressful night. All of us were awaiting the big word that would change the future... "SOLD" When I got into the show ring, I walked him around a couple times and I kind of zoned out. I snapped out of it when I heard that magic word. I was having a rush of emotions coming through... Mostly astonished that someone bought my third place meat goat. I later talked to the buyer's father-in-law and I found out that they hadn't bought him because of his meat quality... They bought him to live on a farm with a couple other goats and a donkey. He said that whenever I wanted to see him, I could drive out and look into the field at him frolicking around. They were proud of the work I had put into Rusty.  At that moment, I was thanking the man and literally choking back tears of pure happiness. I then left and went back to the barn and it all came out. I cried because it was amazing to know that a goat with a personality like his would be preserved and he'd die of old age and not turned into mutton. I was always prepared to accept the fact that he might get turned into goat meat, but now knowing that he's not is amazing! I'm truly grateful.