By popular demand, photos of Goat Day 2010
If you have trouble viewing the slideshow, you can check the Picasa album here
Sangria was consumed, mostly by the hostess, and a couple of last year's McNuggets returned from freezer camp for their charcoal debut. There was much pie.
Small goats provided entertainment.
And young Cole began his progression from poultry-herding hound to real stockdog.
He has so far hung back from the goats, because (unwitnessed, but easily surmised) encounters with their electric fence has convinced him that all goats come with a painful force-field.
So we put him in the x-pen with the kids, and when we let the kids out to romp some more, we put Rosie and Sophia in the house so they wouldn't bogart the goatiness.
Cole decided that since the goatboys had been in the x-pen for a while, they were supposed to stay there. So he started penning them -- with very appropriate gentleness.
We closed the pen, let the kids wander a little further, and he started (spontaneously) to gather them to me. Clearly was concerned about keeping them grouped, and stopped to think when they split. (Goats flock poorly; sheep are much better for training dogs. But goats is what I gots.)
I got two (self-directed) pens, two gathers, a snappy down when he got too excited, and a look-back when he lost one kid on the second gather. And then we stopped for the day. Asking for anything more would be unconscionably greedy, and court disaster.
Like.
ReplyDeleteYay - baby goats? Is that you in the pictures Heather? It's always nice to put a face with typing. I am still hoping to see the ear wattle, for curiosity's sake.
ReplyDeleteI meant -
ReplyDeleteYay - baby goats!
(I have no doubt about the yayness of kids.)
Nope, that's our friend Kelly.
ReplyDeleteIn high school people thought we looked alike, but not any more.
I understand the thrill. :-D Bailey is starting to "click" with the critters. He'd been keeping the poultry where they belonged for quite some time, but now he's helping me move the Alpacas back to their pens after a day of pronking in the lawn, or rounding up the kids when I need to move them between pens. His balance is improving each time we go. :)
ReplyDelete//In high school people thought we looked alike, but not any more.
ReplyDeleteI never understood why that was back then -- maybe it was because we were always together? Of course, no one ever mixed us up w/ our friend Cliff, who was usually with us as well.
This is a good point. We do not look alike, and really never have.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, Perfesser Chaos and I do not sound alike, and apparently no one can tell us apart on the phone.
And you get confused over a mere five dogs' identities if we swap collars.
Mebbe people just don't pay attention.
It looks like you have non-spotted kids in there as well -- did you get any does from Patsy (I think she was the one who hadn't delivered yet) or more bucks?
ReplyDeleteI suppose I should throw out that the link to the Picasa album is gebroken.
ReplyDeleteIt's working now. Perhaps a temporary blip?
ReplyDeleteKris --
ReplyDeleteALL bucks.
Sigh.
You have my sympathy. Almost all rams for us, too; to be fair, we did have one ewe, but that was after THREE YEARS of nothing but rams. I think the powers-that-be threw that little bone just so I didn't throw in the towel.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather,
ReplyDeleteLove the photos! I saw that Cole was adopted on the NESR site and wondered if he was staying with you. Is he? If so, what a lucky lucky dog!! He looks so happy and gorgeous. You would never know he had such a hard start.
Mary O and Rip