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Dianne:
Festus our goat needs a friend. We spent last summer building him a huge new pen and he doesn't like it. We put him in it when Mark cleans his small temporary pen on the weekends, and he paces the fence calling to us. If we go and hang out with him in the pen, he is happy. But leave him alone and a very loud protest begins. When the temp pen is clean and ready, he doesn't need leashing to return, just open his gate and he comes running.
When I lock up the chickens in the evenings, he also has a hard time. The burros are in their shelter eating, the chickens have been put to bed and he is alone. He calls to me as I climb up the hill to the house, a mournful sad pleading that breaks my heart.
Goats are herd animals, they butt heads, play chase, and develop all kinds of goat games. Festus's need for a friend is an important part of his goatness.
So last week we rescued a little pygmy goat friend from the pound and named her Miss Kitty. We took her to the vet and had her checked out and given her spring shots. She was terrified of us, she trembled at any human touch so we decided to give her time. She was put in a six-foot-tall hundred-square-foot isolation pen. She had a couple of houses, plenty of straw and fresh food and water. Each day we would spend ten to twenty minutes in her pen sitting, just letting her get used to us.
On day one I caught her standing on the larger house peering over the top of the pen. So before leaving for work, we dismantled the large house and moved in a shorter house.
But on day three she somehow scaled the six foot fence and ran off. We haven't seen her since.
We have posted signs, put her information on the internet and scoured the mountains around the sanctuary. This was a very hard lesson for us. It has taught us to never underestimate the abilities of any animal no matter how small.
So Festus gets a friend and loses a friend in the same week. It doesn't seem fair somehow that with all the animals needing refuge out there, finding a goat for Festus should be so hard.