A Baa-D Decision? My Unexpected Goat Journey

Did you know goats were herd animals? I didn't. Seems like something one should know before buying goats but I've never been good about thinking like other people. Here's the thing, I didn't even want goats. I wanted a cow. A fluffy mini highland cow to be specific. But that was waaay out of budget. Still, I didn't immediately jump to "I want a goat." To be completely honest, I thought (and still kinda do) that their eyes were creepy and they would just freak me out. But of course, I still watched all the adorable baby goat videos online. Then I saw a friend of my husband's post some baby goat pictures on Facebook and I was hooked. I immediately started asking him if we could get a goat. Emphasis on "a goat" because I had not done any research at all on being a goat owner. At that point, he was completely against it and honestly thought it was like my mini cow dreams, out of budget and many years away. He should have known better because he has spoiled me our entire relationship. I ask for something and if it is at all possible he always makes a way. So he calls his friend and asks how much a goat would cost. Surprisingly it was in budget, but the curve ball came when she said, "You know goats are herd animals right? You have to get at least 2." But he had already committed, he had given me hope by calling and getting a price that was in the budget. So there was no way he was going to take that hope away. 4 hours later we have 2 three-month-old Nigerian Dwarf goats in the back seat of the truck headed home. Missy and Rascal were their names, although we did change Missy's name to Lily.

Rascal had been an inside goat due to an injury from a dog when he was a baby so he was completely tame, knew his name, and loved to be petted. Missy aka Lily was a little more skittish, didn't know her name, and cried the whole way home from missing her mama. Once we got them home we had the next dilemma of where are we gonna put them. Luckily we had the building that we had housed our meat birds in the prior fall. So for the night, we decided that was the best place. However, Lily didn't think so. Did you know goats are fast? I didn't. At least not until Lily darted out of that building as soon as I sat her down. Our German Shepherd, Sammy, had never seen goats before so of course he took off after her. About that time Rascal darted out of the building. Can you picture it? 10:00 at night. Me, my husband, 12-year-old son, and 8-year-old daughter running around trying to catch 2 goats and a dog. The kids were able to catch Rascal pretty easily (knowing his name helped tremendously!) They called him and he stopped and waited to be picked up. My husband caught Sammy and held onto him while I went after Lily. By this time she was terrified and would not stop running. She ran the perimeter around our fenced yard and then made it into the garage. I'm gonna be real with you here, our garage is a mess. It's not a nice attached garage or even a slightly disarrayed detached garage. It's a leaning, cobbled together, unorganized, watch out for snakes building my dad built when I was a kid that now houses all my husband's tools and the kids' outside toys. So when she made it into the garage, dread hit me. Was she gonna get bit by a snake? Get caught on something sharp? Find a loose piece of wood and manage to get out of the fenced-in area? Nope. She found the hardest to get to table in the back corner, hunkered down under it, and refused to move. When I say I had to squeeze into places I wasn't sure I would get back out of, I'm not kidding. At this point, my husband is still keeping Sammy under control, the kids are trying to keep Rascal from running away again, and I'm climbing around the stuff in the garage like it's a jungle gym trying to get to a terrified goat. At that moment I wished I had never asked for goats. But finally, when I was 30 seconds from saying "Forget it, I'm cutting a hole in the wall to get her from the other side," I was able to grab ahold of her and pick her up. Now getting back out was an even bigger issue since I was trying to navigate that jungle gym with a wiggling goat under one arm however I finally made it out. We checked over both goats and got them safely in their building for the night. I'm massively regretting my impulsiveness now, and completely unsure what to do next. But then my daughter exclaims, "This is the best birthday present ever!!" It was 2 days before her birthday, how I had forgotten that I'll never know but the excitement in her voice gave me the determination I needed to buckle down and take a crash course in owning goats. So over the next 3 days, we built the goats a fenced area, bought all the food and minerals they needed, and joined every goat group on Facebook I could find.

At the time of writing this, we've been goat owners for 8 months. My goats are so sweet and amazing. They're seriously like little dogs. We all love them so much. And I still have a lot to learn. I don't regret getting the goats anymore but take it from me, it's better not to be spontaneous when getting farm animals. Do the research first. Or at least always have an area prepared in case you also like to spontaneously buy farm animals.