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. 

At least, that’s what it looks like when he’s out wrangling goats. Especially this goat:  

Phil makes sure he’s prepared. He carries a goat training utility belt these days. It has a a loaded water pistol for fending off the mobbing hoards, and it has a pouch full of cookies for rewarding good behavior.  

You just can’t take any chances with this crowd!  

It looks like Finn is going to be an awesome hiking companion. This was his first day out on the trail and he had the time of his life! I’ve never seen such a happy goat.    

He cried during the ride in the truck (Pac-Man didn’t help–he cried just as much, the big sissy), but once we got on the trail, Finn turned into a bouncing ball of glee. He’s got every bit of his mother’s spunk and athleticism (we call Lilly our ninja goat). There are loads of cliffs, boulders, and giant logs on this trail, so Finn spent the entire time bouncing circles around us as he leaped from one launching pad to another, sometimes far above our heads. I worried that he’d pull a Nibbles and get stuck, but he’s quite the brave little leaper and he never let the heights get to him.

It’s hard to tell from just two photos, but this was a complicated and rather risky maneuver…

…performed at a great height.

Pac-Man is learning to be somewhat more athletic. He had to cross logs, he had to climb over boulders, and he even had to jump a few ledges. He would have gone around if he could, but sometimes there was water to avoid, and leaping is almost always superior to getting one’s toes wet. There were a few places where the creek overflowed the trail and only the nimblest climber could scale the cliffs to get around, and for the first few of those I had to physically drag Pac-Man into the water (with much crying and protesting). But by about the third or fourth one, he came with only a small tug on the rope, and on the way home I was able to unleash him. He waited until we were out of sight before he could work up the courage, but he still did it by himself. I was very proud of him.     

Finn is still working on water crossings.

Although he prefers not to get his feet wet, Finn does not share Pac-Man’s extreme hydrophobia.

It’s cookie time!

We’ve had a lot of fun playing with our goats on the Cuzcotopia Tower! 

Nubbin shares a patriotic moment with Phil at the flagpole. 

We’re not sure if Petunia is laughing or is just bored. 

Two little cuties.

To supplement her income, this ingenuous mother of two uses her unusual, soaring ears to install a toll bridge. 

Pac-Man is afraid of heights–the only goat I’ve ever heard of that is afraid of heights! This is as far as I could tempt him to go. 

Lilly takes a moment to salute the flag.