They didn’t last long this year. Normally we keep the pumpkins till they’re good and rotten, but we didn’t have the heart to lock Cuzco off the porch for that long. This was the only possible outcome. 

Those pumpkins ‘ll wear you out! 

These are the shots from last year’s Halloween. Looking forward to the carnage coming up this year! 

…especially on the side with the missing horn.

Our faithful old Buick, Edith, finally bit the dust, so Phil and I had to make a decision. Repairs would have cost far more than she was worth, and four years of living in the western NY rust belt had not been kind to her undercarriage. We decided that a car this fine could only go out in style!  Colorado State Fair demolition derby, here we come!

The only problem was that this was Cuzco’s car.

The goat was very excited to see his favorite ride standing in the drive with the doors open. He thought he was being invited to climb in and go for a ride and maybe take a nap in the cushy back seat (Buicks are always so plush!). But the back seat was no longer there! He crawled all over the interior of the vehicle looking for it, but even the front passenger seat (which he had used once or twice in a pinch) was missing! I’m afraid he was a bit traumatized by the experience.

In order to console Cuzco for the loss of his favorite ride, we decided to get him into the spirit of derby day. I had sprayed the car with aerosol glue and poured about five bottles of Sunday school glitter on it. Cuzco was lying on the porch minding his own business and I thought, “That goat needs something…”

A couple of spritzes of glue and a few dashes of blue glitter and voila!

Cuzco, bedazzled, poses next to the corporate logo on our car:

This is only fitting since he is, after all, our company mascot.

Phil and his dad recently built a palace for Cuzco. He gave it his immediate stamp of approval and made it his royal headquarters. 

4th of July parade 2004, Lake City, CO

Try stucco!  This is a very subdued itching session. Sometimes Cuzco gets so “into it” that it looks like his feet are going to slide right out from under him! Our walls now have a nice blackish grease streak right at goat level. But at least his coat stays shiny!

More than anything else I think it was the parachute ears that really won my heart. I’ll never forget the first time I watched him bounding through a field of tall grass. His ears were flapping like wings so it looked like he was trying to take off. Proportionally they are not nearly so big now that he’s grown up, but even still when we’re with friends who see him run for the first time they almost always exclaim, “Oh my gosh! Look at his ears! Is he trying to fly!?!”

This is the photo we submitted to the Houghton Star when we ran Cuzco for Homecoming King. Look at that royal strut! I think it’s obvious why he won.