When our daughter, Kristin, was a young teenager she got a goat at the Richland County Fair. He was a cute little goat with long, soft floppy ears and big brown eyes.
She named him Alvin. He came home with us in the front seat of the truck.
Alvin was raised by a little girl who spoiled him rotten. Her dad told her she couldn't bring him back home and had to sell him so we were the lucky recipients. Alvin thought he should live in the house with people and not in the nice little pen quite suitable for a goat. The pen used to belong to our Great Dane when she was outside and was nicely fenced and had a nice big doggie door. With a big pile of straw it made a nice goat pen. But Alvin was a free range goat and learned how to open the back door and was frequently found wandering around the kitchen looking for anything he thought he wanted to eat. He often found something too. He loved cereal that I bought and no one liked, especially if it was sweet. I'm surprised he didn't start opening the cupboards and helping himself!
We would also find him in the living room on the sofa or even upstairs. It wasn't so bad when he wasn't so big. Turns out he was housebroken which was a good thing. We were used to big dogs so a goat wasn't so bad.
I used to take the dogs on walks in the woods and all over the farm almost every day. Alvin started going along. Even one of my cats, O'Malley, came with us. We were quite the group. Me, a Dalmatian, a poodle, Albert, our Lab, Amos, a cat and a goat. Alvin liked walking on fallen trees, especially the ones across the creek. I liked sitting down on my "meditation rock," just thinking and listening to the creek bubble past. The dogs would either lay there with me or go snoop around and the cat would curl up with me on the rock. Alvin didn't like me sitting there so he'd push at me until I got up and we went on walking or went home. When I wanted peace and quiet I had to leave them all at home.
One year my mom left her huge spider plant with me to take care of while she and dad spent the winter in Florida. It got along fine during the winter when it was hanging in the house. But in the spring when it was warmer I hung it on the back porch. One day I went out and it was gone. Eaten down to a few little stems that Alvin couldn't reach. I worried about that silly plant and what my mom was going to say. I didn't tell her on the phone. No, I waited until they got home and came down to our house. She laughed about the plant and said she was going to make me keep it anyway. What?? I worried for nothing? I always hoped Alvin got indigestion from that darn plant!
I didn't mention Alvin had horns. We had him dehorned but they grew back. I also didn't mention that Kristin's brother, Andy, thought it was really funny when Alvin liked to head butt us. He reared up on his hind feet and then, kapowie, we got it. And Alvin didn't care where! We were afraid to bend over if he was around. And Andy encouraged Alvin as much as he could. He thought it was just hilarious. Now it was really funny when Alvin was little. But then Alvin got huge and it wasn't so funny. Well, not to me, anyway. I got a lot of bruises from that dang goat. I had to start looking for him when I went out hoping he was off anywhere else!!
When Alvin got older he just got more stubborn. I can see where the saying "stubborn old goat" came from. He bashed in more than one screen door when he couldn't get them open. He insisted at all times being "free range" refusing to stay in his pen at all. Kristin also got older and lived away from home. Andy was there and just thought it was fun to show off Alvin's head butting skills to his friends. Finally, Andy wasn't there either. And I got tired of running for the barn to take care of the cows. Or anywhere else outside. I was pretty fat at the time so didn't run so well!! After much deliberation and discussion, Alvin went to live with a sheep farmer to keep coyotes out of the field where the sheep were. I'm sure Alvin could stomp and head butt a coyote from here to kingdom come. The dogs had been his training ground as he got bigger. So he spent his retirement in the sheep barn and pasture. I know he didn't mind because he just turned his nose up at us and joined the sheep, happily munching grass and joining some of his own kind. Finally!
