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Cuzco’s deck

It’s Cuzco’s doormat. But sometimes he lets me sit next to it. Cuzco_NanUnless it’s the boys from the youth group, I always make sure Cuzco isn’t guarding our porch when someone comes to the door. The high schoolers come over once a week , and since Phil and I are firm believers that teenage boys deserve to be harassed regularly and often, we leave Cuzco loose to give them character enrichment lessons. Cuzco smells the fear behind their false machismo and takes advantage at every opportunity, teaching them important life lessons about humility and proper respect for animals.

The UPS man often encounters Cuzco, but he doesn’t have a problem because he’s neither intimidated nor confrontational. He just has to remember to close his door while delivering the package because he’s ended up with a goat in his truck on one or two occasions. Thankfully he’s got a good sense of humor.

Since Phil is in San Francisco this week at the Game Developer’s Conference, I’ll post a picture of Phil’s favorite activity: making burgers on the BBQ grill. Cuzco likes to help.BurgersGrilling

It’s funny how intuitive animals are. Phil works in the house, so it’s not like he spends a lot of time outside with Cuzco. Sure, Phil gives treats and we take Cuzco for a walk together every day, but I usually do all the feeding and chores and outside work, so Cuzco sees a lot more of me than of Phil. But when Phil leaves town Cuzco always notices immediately and gets depressed the first few days. He wanders around baa-aa-ing at nothing, is more lethargic, and generally acts like he’s a bit lost. I try to make up for it with some extra TLC, but nothing can make up for the fact that Phil is missing. So here’s a picture of Phil feeding Cuzco peanuts from his hammock chair last summer. Ah, bliss!Peanut

Cuzco may be an “only goat”, but he still has friends. I got these from two totally different people who don’t even know each other. Cuzco sometimes talks to them. Porch_Friends Porch_Friends2

The memory of green

Brrr… it’s snowing today and I’m having fond memories of last summer–back when I was complaining that it was too hot to do anything outside. Humans are impossible to please, but luckily goats aren’t.

Cuzco: up to the ears in eatables. What could possibly be better?
Ears_in_foliage

Is this goat in heaven or what?Goat_Heaven

A blaze of glory

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!
Edith1

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

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.Cuzco_DemoCar1

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_Bedazzled1

Cuzco, bedazzled, poses next to the corporate logo on our car:
Cuzco_Bedazzled2
This is only fitting since he is, after all, our company mascot.