"You've Got Goats"

John had a look at some angora x goats I'd found on Trademe a couple of weeks ago but had to wait for the owner to round them up so he could collect a couple for me. He and Marg arrived here just after lunch with three girls in a sheep grate on a trailer. There was an older female of a year old with two smaller kids. They looked so much like Toby it hurt.

As they hadn't had a great deal of contact with humans they were somewhat wary but I put my hand in through the wire netting so they could get my scent before going to "help" John and Marg fix my front fence which was definitely not goat proof. John painfully snipped wires off a 100 year old post covered with lichen that had broken off at the bottom. There was a newer corner post alongside this (probably only a mere 50 years old) so he secured the wire onto this. We then went round the back of the wash shed where I'd found a very rickety old gate from early last century. We rehung this near the woodshed which Marg informed me would have originally been a cow bail where the house cow was milked.

There was also a gap along the boundary fence so John constructed a blockade there with cage wire and more old wood to stop the goats getting down to the hen house. All this was designed so that I could keep them confined in a small area in order to tame them down.

After a cup of tea and a chat inside Marg leapt up into the trailer and grabbed a kid which John sat on my knee so he could dose it and put a blue Snoopy collar on. The next kid was slightly larger so he grappled with it and we then took them along to the now secure small apple orchard next to the house and let them go. They both boinged their way over the grass and hid behind the woodshed.

The larger doe was lying down on the trailer and looking decidedly put out. John dosed and collared her like the others and then let her go as well. As he and Marg proceeded to empty out some firewood they'd brought for me I tried to see what the goats were doing. The older female had spied some sheep next door and ran to the boundary fence under the shelter belt. I then heard a sharp "twang" but couldn't see what had happened although I could half spy the two kids looking wistfully through the fence. I went round the front into the field next door in time to see the doe galloping like mad from my place towards the sheep. Mishka and I tried to round her up but she rushed past me along the front of my place before disappearing beneath some trees. I spent the next half hour wandering down amongst the farm buildings trying to find the she devil but there was no sign of her.

By the time I got back to the house it was getting cold and dark and Marg and John were preparing to drive back to Napier. John did make the suggestion that if I can't get her tamed down he would bring a rifle next visit. I went inside and rang my landlord and he has promised to get the doe mustered tomorrow. Then I will have to tie her up so that she doesn't make another break for freedom before I can make friends with her. One thing about owning goats- it's never boring!