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.