I Miss a Little Friend From Home

I miss our little goat named Rocket who lives at Soldier's Heart Ranch, she is such a card.  She loves to follow me around the yard, and when I was taking hay back to the horses last spring, she hopped in the wagon for a little goat snack!

I let her out of her pen often to play, but I feel sorry for her when she is alone

 in her pen, so one Easter I let her try making friends with the rabbits!

She can be so charming, ... and not so charming!

So Many Love Me... It Creates a Terrible Tension

Ginger has developed a green eyed problem, she now wants me to pet her like I do Chance almost a little roughly, like you do with a younger dog... almost constantly... and sits at my feet or follows me endlessly!  Ginger is very old, about sixteen.  She can hardly get around, but since Chance moved in with us, she has begun feeling younger and younger, no longer does she sleep all day.  She is much more alert, playful, and J - E - A - L- O - U - S!  That low growl she gives Chance, the puppies, and Patti means business!  She has always been such a low key dog, but when she goes off, even at 16, it is bad, very bad...  So when she starts that growl because one of the other dogs or the puppies are bothering her... Kadie bar the door!

For the longest time Ginger was an only child...

Please, Oh Please, Just Butt Out!!!

I don't know if you are aware or not, but women don't get along as well together as men do.  The same goes with the female creatures on this ranch.  We have a male rabbit, one gelding pony, two male neutered cats, one male pot bellied pig, and a couple of roosters.  Everything else is female.  There is a female donkey, two female miniature horses, three female horses, two female pot bellied pigs, two female dogs, two female ducks, a passel of hens, and one female miniature goat.  Every single female animal on this little ranch is consumed with jealousy!  My attention to each animal is highly sought after, (I do all the feeding, the sweet talking, and the petting here.)  There are all kinds of little actions they use to show just how jealous they are for my attention, but today, I got so mad at one of them...  She just kept butting in...

I was trying to get some video of all the magnificent wild birds that make their home here every winter.  I put chicken scratch out on the old antique buck board wagon, and a little fountain that keeps fresh water bubbling out.  I had put out a feed sack so the bird seed would not fall through the cracks, positioned my camera just right, and turned on the camera to catch a little close up video of the wild birds feeding.  You can hear the cardinals fussing, and me futilely begging for co-operation.  As per usual, Patti, our Australian Cattle Dog, ran through the woods scaring whatever birds that were feeding she off the ground and out of the area.  She is very clever and will watch where I am staring, or pointing my camera, and then take off chasing the object of my attention away.  Then another of the green eyed girls decided she would be the star of my wild bird video, and she hopped up onto my carefully prepared site...

        

I Have Created a Monster!

I swear if she had opposable thumbs she would take off joy riding on the lawn mower, and follow me to town.  She has seen the dog go inside and decided animals are allowed in that door.  She tries to squeeze by my legs all the time. Also, she has seen Ginger the Wonder Dog hop in the truck to go to town and get hay... in her mind she is certainly as well behaved as that dog...  Sigh, how do you explain to a goat you don't want to look like a hillbilly without hurting her feelings?

 

Rocket Just Has Trouble Socializing!

Rocket wants to be friends, but she isn't sure how to entertain rabbits when they visit her pen...
      
                                 

I Don't Have a Clue What to Do on This, It Is Only a Matter of Time Before it Kills Something...

 

There is good news concerning our sweet little goat Rocket, and there is some bad news, very bad news, even though it is wondrous in nature.  After the initial plan failed, (pursuit on foot and capture,) a solution just dropped in our laps, and she is safe and sound now.   We had a porta poddy delivered for the construction project, and Rocket the goat was all up in that business, hopping up on the trailer it was delivered on, following us around, and darting off whenever we looked like we were getting close enough to attempt a leap to catch her.  So the delivery guy says, "want me to rope her?"  I said, "we sure do."  I went and got some blue swing set rope, and Rocket the Goat had the best time of her life for about fifteen minutes.  Actually we all had a good time, we knew she was having a good time because when we pretended we were giving up, she would dart toward us saying "Nana, Nana, Nana."  (The pun was definitely intended.)  Then, the delivery guy proved how good he was at roping, and we put her back in the pen.  She bleated, and bleated, and bleated, like she had lost her best friend, or had been left to be eaten by the black panther, and I am not talking about someone's political affiliation... I am talking I thought it was a mountain lion... it isn't...