Getting the goats

Saturday was an interesting day for me. It was my first Farmer's Market, and immediately after, I drove to the city to pick up our goats. It was a hot summer day in May, and everything went well I'd say.

I was a little nervous at first about getting goats. I've never even owned a dog before, though I've lived with and cared for many. It just seemed so hard to fathom that I'd be housing and caring for two somewhat large, intelligent non-human beings. I questioned whether I was ready for goats. I was concerned that I might not do it right, or they'd be uncomfortable or unhappy with what we have to offer. I was worried they'd take forever to train, and get used to us.

I was worried and nervous and concerned for nothing.

Day one was a little hectic at first.. getting them into the halters was a bit of an ordeal. Getting into the van was.. interesting to say the least. But once they were in the van, it was smooth sailing. All I could think was, 'I can't believe I have two hooved animals in my van'. They were pretty content.

Once we got them into their pen area, they did their best to evade us. In their previous home, they were more or less free roaming with very little human interaction for a good portion of their lives. I was sure it would take us weeks to get them used us, and maybe months to get them halter trained. I was so very wrong.

We hung out in their pen with them for a while. After half an hour, Zorro started to warm up to me. We figured we may as well start right away with their halter training. It took us a couple tries cornering them in the barn to get the halters on and leads attached, but once they figured out that halters on meant the gate would open, their attitudes changed.

The next step was to get them to understand the concept of walking on a lead. As I said before, they were mostly free roaming.. and their previous owners couldn't recall if they had ever even been haltered at two years old. The first twenty minutes was not promising. As soon as we led them to the sea of bramble, they realized that halters also meant free to eat to their heart's content. It was pretty smooth sailing from there!

...


It's now been two weeks since we brought them home. At first I couldn't imagine having them here. Now I don't know how I lived without them! They're our pets, our friends, and part of the family. We are learning their individual personality traits, and how they interact with one another and with people.

They're becoming more used to visitors and vehicles driving by. They LOVE being walked, they now trot proudly down the road knowing someone will slow down to give them attention.

Having them here with us has been more than a joy, and in a sense, therapeutic. In fact, I haven't had time to write about how much I love having the goats because I've been too busy enjoying their company, brushing them, walking them, feeding them the garden scraps and watching them play.

We decided since we got them that they needed a social media profile to be the stars of, so we created a Facebook page, Instagram, and even a Twitter for Sandy Shores Farm... between them and the bunnies, you can find your daily dose of cuteness at any one of those pages! Oh and you know, a little gardening too ;)


Xo