Well, we’ve given our new girls two weeks of quarantine and we got clean blood test results back from WADDL this afternoon. Time for introductions!

The match is set! We’ve got Lilly in one corner with Petunia acting as her second vs. Delilah in the other corner with Jezebel second. DING DING!

And now there’s a general melee with everyone jumping in on the action at once!

Jezebel and Nubbin do a little two-step.

Delilah and Lilly get serious!

Keep workin’ that chin, Delilah!

Ready… aim… FIRE! Delilah is no match for Lilly’s bazookas.

But the dust soon settled and everyone spent the rest of the afternoon grazing peacefully together. 

Update by Phil: Unfortunately after Nan left, things got a little bit messy …

Whooopsie!!!

-Phil

Cuzco was the star guest member of RCC Saddle Club last Saturday at the Colorado State Fair parade, and boy did he attract attention!

He carried two panniers filled with candy and we followed the horses, weaving back and forth between crowds to hand out sweets to the kids. We got a ton of cheers, requests to touch him, and puzzled questions and expressions. Several people thought he was a llama or a burrow. I corrected them and told them he was a unicorn. That got a lot of laughs. The parade judges liked Cuzco a lot. They gave our little club 3rd place in the horse category, which is pretty darn good in a parade that size! We couldn’t beat the fancy Mexican vaqueros and senoritas with their fancy outfits and spirited exotic stallions, but I think this is the first time our club has placed at all (or at least in years). Go Cuzco!

Finn loves laps!

He’d sit here talking to me for hours if I let him. I have to be careful, though, because his horns are at exactly the wrong size right now and all it takes is a slight bop of the head to smack me right in the chin. I got a fat lip three weeks ago because he jumped up on the stanchion just as I leaned down to pick up a bucket. It was an accident, but we all have to learn to be careful these days!

Sputnik’s coat is going nuts right now. All these dark spots are coming in everywhere on his front end. He’s hard to photograph because he simply will not sit still, and photos also don’t seem to capture the spots very well yet and leave them looking washed-out compared to what they look like in real life. But he’s a crazy-looking critter!

He’s also incredibly clever! I’ve been teaching Finn and Snickers to lie down on command (a difficult command to learn, but best taught when they’re small). They are getting it pretty well, but when I tried it on Sputnik he panicked, so I decided to back off a bit and teach him some simpler tricks instead. I started out with “spin” and he had it within about five tries. Most goats take a couple of days to even start learning that trick! He was so attentive that I introduced “shake hands” that same morning. He offered me his leg the third time I asked–a new record! Petunia learned it in about five tries last year and I thought she was clever! Hopefully once he “learns to learn” he’ll listen to my “lie down” command without having a panic attack the minute I force him to bend his knees and go down.

Our little Finn just keeps getting bigger and prettier and more friendly and outgoing with everyone. He LOVES to go hiking and he comes running when we call his name. Today he got separated from everybody and started crying. Lilly and I both called to him and he came to me instead of his mom. It was very heartwarming. He leaps into the truck on command when Phil wants to take him out, and I’m teaching him to lie down on command as well. He’s learning incredibly fast!

I’ve never seen brighter, livelier eyes on a goat. The intelligence behind them reminds me of Cuzco, but there’s an eagerness to please that shines out the same way it does in a dog’s eyes. I hope he never loses this!

Finn also loves to sit in my lap (as far as it’s still possible). This must be genetic because Lilly used to do the exact same thing till I made her quit when she got too heavy–he waits till I’m sitting down, then he sidles up next to me, puts his head in my lap, then slowly eases himself up one front leg at a time until he has sort of snuggled his way onto my lap. Lilly hasn’t done this since last winter, so I know she didn’t show Finn how–she must have whispered instructions when I wasn’t looking.

And I just love those perky ears!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

More powerful than a locomotive!

Able to leap tall goats in a single bound!

Look! Out in the driveway talking to Phil!

Under the tree, posing for the camera!

Pestering the dog! It’s Snickers and Sputnik!!

These two have really been growing nicely, and Snickers is becoming friendlier and more intelligent by the day. He knows his name and comes when he’s called now, and he’s so sweet and gentle (much like Finn). He also likes to mess with the dog… a lot.

Sputnik is also starting to learn his name, but he comes when he feels like it. This little guy has had an attitude since the day he was born and he’s getting feistier all the time. He regularly picks fights with Finn (and I’m talking some pretty hard fights!), and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was bossing Finn around before long despite the size discrepancy. The second he got over his shyness around me he started testing the boundaries. He went from timidly taking cookies one day to butting my hand as he snatched them away the next. He got spanked twice yesterday for butting me on purpose, once when I wasn’t even feeding. He’s the little squirt of the bunch so I guess he feels he needs to compensate. Well not with me, buster! Although he’s not related to her, his attitude reminds me a little bit of Nibbles. She didn’t like to be held or restrained either and was always on the move and scrapping with everybody. Hopefully he can learn to channel his “enthusiasm” or that splashy coat of his is going to look mighty nice as an area rug. 

I saw two does advertised on Craigslist for a price I couldn’t ignore. We went to go see them and we fell in love. Meet Jezebel and Delilah! (Please, girls, DO NOT live up to those names–you’re  better than that!)

They’re a little on the skinny side at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll have them fattened up in no time! 

These two are afraid to go in their little igloos, but Delilah has no qualms about chewing the tops off. 

Phil bonds with his two new girls. They’re quite shy at the moment–nothing a little attention and food bribery won’t fix. 

Phil was not convinced that we needed more goats, and as we were on our way out to look at them he asked me, “So… what’s so great about these two goats that you think we should go see them?”

I gabbled a bit about their price, their color, their breeding, etc. It wasn’t leaving an impression. And then I mentioned the wattles. “Both goats have wattles,” I said.

“NOW you’ve got me excited!” Phil replied. These are now officially our first goats with jewelry.  

And I love Delilah’s little pointy tongue. She’s shy as can be but she’s also insatiably curious. It’s fun to watch her two conflicting personality traits wage war every time we come into the pen. 

Snickers went for his first “solo” hike today, and I gotta say, this little guy is just as much a “natural” as Finn! I left Sputnik home because he was such a noisy little worry-wart when Phil and I took the two of them hiking with us other day. I thought Snickers might be upset without his brother, but that wasn’t the case at all. He seemed calmer without Sputnik there to work him up.

Snickers really latched onto the friend I was hiking with and stayed right next to her most of the time.

My friend brought a Nigerian Dwarf baby with us as well. What a cutie!

Snickers is just getting prettier and prettier!

“These shoes smell interesting…”

“BLECH!!!”

“This stuff looks pretty wet to me.”

Yesterday we hiked to the arch and Pac-Man was generous enough to carry our water bottles and some empty containers in case we found raspberries to pick.

Our friend Jordan also came with us. She brought her Nigerian Dwarf, Hollister, along as a hiking companion. 

Phil and Pac-Man share a bonding moment. 

I didn’t get any photos of the arch, and we didn’t find too many raspberries, but I had a very good view for most of the hike. 

Pac-Man is at the size and age where I think it’s time he learned to do a little work, so I hitched him to the cart yesterday for our walk. He did not like it at first, and I can’t say he was very cooperative since he kept running over my my feet and bashing my legs with the shafts, but he’s a natural at driving. For the sake of self-preservation, I gave up trying to lead him and let him stay out in front instead, which is what he seemed to prefer.

Pac-Man led the charge for most of the walk, which is a rare and wonderful thing if your’e teaching a goat to drive. Most goats prefer to follow and it is therefore difficult to train them to walk out ahead when pulling a cart. I think in Pac-Man’s case I may have the rare privilege of teaching a goat to drive before I teach him to lead with a cart. 

Homeward bound.