An Introduction to the Goats

Meet the goats!  From left to right are Lily, Silver, Blackberry and Sweet Pea.  They all came to the fence in the hopes I would feed them a treat--and of course I acquiesced and gave them each a nibble of grain. I went in their yard to take some pictures and Lily tried to eat the camera while Silver nibbled on my jacket string!  Those two are sister and brother and we got them together when they were only a couple of weeks old. We bottle fed them until they were over two months old so they really are our "babies".  We're pretty sure that they think we may still keep a bottle for them in our pocket!

Lily, Silver and Blackberry are Nigerian Dwarf goats, Sweet Pea is an African Pygmy.  They all four have very unique personalities and as their goat yard and barn are right out our kitchen window, we all spend a lot of time watching their funny antics.  Goats are really playful creatures and ours spend a good part of each day head-butting each other and jumping on and off their toys.  (A toy for them is any structure they can leap onto--they love being up high!)  When the sun comes out they are amazingly good at basking in it.  They absolutely hate the rain and will hide in their barn during the rainy days--which are many during the winter months.  Frequently on those long days we will see all four little heads peeking out the door like little kids wishing the rain would stop.

Our goats are our pets.  I have two friends from Mexico who laughed and laughed when they heard I had pet goats.  They couldn't believe I would pay to feed them and not get any meat or milk in return.  And I can see their point--it is a little crazy.  Many of our friends have asked us why we have goats and the only real answer is that I just fell in love with them at the fair many years ago.  When Brian and I were newly married and enjoying the Puyallup Fair together, we came across a herd of African Pygmy goats that were for sale and I was smitten!  I tucked away a wish for goats right then and waited until we had the space and time for them.

As our girls were getting older I started talking about wanting goats and soon had everyone excited about the idea.  As it turns out I'm pretty good at talking my husband into things!!  So two years ago we spent our time together as a family clearing some space for a goat yard and building a goat barn.  It was an amazing family project.  The girls hammered, sawed and painted and by the end of Spring we had a cute little red barn and fenced goat yard.  And the goats have been really fun pets.  They aren't good for much else anyway.  Sweet pea is so unusually small that she can't even be bred, and Silver and Blackberry are wethered--which means they have lost their "boy parts" as Grace would say.  Lily could be bred and then milked but that is more of a commitment than any of us want at this point.  And truthfully I'm not that fond of goat's milk.  So, here we are with pet farm animals and our life is more amusing because of them.