I get a pleasant view of the doe paddock from my milking room. It’s nice to gaze out into the woods while listening to the songbirds sing. Yesterday evening while I was milking Lucy I watched dreamily as Daisy calmly munched on leaves while all the other girls (and Cocoa Puff’s rowdy boys) were in the goat house with me. Daisy often browses away from the others. She seems to be my herd introvert and, while she gets along with the other does, she doesn’t seem to be a fan of all the head butting (unless she’s the one doing the head butting). It wasn’t all that unusual to see her off by herself. What was unusual was when she started pacing back and forth looking in my direction and calling. As I sat there gazing outside I realized Daisy wasn’t exactly away from the herd by choice. Somehow, she managed to get herself stuck in the section of the doe paddock David worked so hard fencing off to protect my wild black raspberry patch.
I’m not sure how she managed to get inside the fence, but she sure couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. And since I didn’t realize she was stuck in there until I’d already started milking, she was forced to stay until I got done.
I didn’t say anything to David, and I thought so long as he stayed in the orchard mulching trees, I could get her out before he did notice. Well, with an ‘eh hemmm’ from just outside my goat house, I realized he noticed.
Our first goats were the three Oberhaslis, Basil, Daisy, and Violet. They’re so sweet and affectionate. And certainly, much quieter than my Nigerian Dwarfs, who scream every time they hear my voice, or, when the wind blows. I once caught the neighbor screaming back at them with his best goat impression. I must admit, they are a bit obnoxious. It wasn’t until we got our Nigerian Dwarfs that I realized just how quiet the Obers were. And while my Nigies are all sweet, it’s the Obers who demand attention and like to follow me around.
The downside to the Obers is their size coupled with their love of tree leaves. The Nigies are too short for most of the trees, but the Obers will jump on their hind legs to grab an out of reach branch, and often, manage to break it off. And apparently it was her love of out of reach leaves that Daisy found herself in yet another precarious situation in less than a week.
David (biologist and tree lover) likes my animals and co-exists peaceably, but draws the line at tree eating. More times than I can count he’s taken off running to chase a goat off one of his trees. Also, more times than I can count the goats have been called things that are not their real names for eating his trees.
When he discovered Daisy in his protected space, he was not happy, and his words were “I wish you’d sell those Obers. They are tree eating assholes!” And he walked in the house shaking his head.
You can see from Daisy’s protruding left side, she was well fed yesterday.
Also, I am not selling my Obers. I love them. And maybe David should look on the bright side. At least they’re not screaming at him.
