Baaah

It's not quite Teddy, the goat beloved by this blogger and apparently this blog's readers but this little lamb came to The Center for day care. While he was able to curl up and nap in this area, I caught him awake and saying hello.



Short, but sheep.

It's GOAT TIME on the blog!

Hello -- I'm looking right at you with my horizontal pupil. Do you like my hair? Do you like my ears? I hope so because I've been told I'm just really likable in general.

And what do I like? Just about anything I can chew on.... um, because I'm a GOAT, and that's what goats do.

Here I am last summer in my pen when Rochelle took a little movie of me. Her camera looked pretty tasty -- and so did her shirt sleeve, come to think of it -- and I tried to get to it but she was just out of reach. So I stood around a little and then I got disinterested.



If you want to see a pic of me as a baby, CLICK HERE -- Don't pass it up. Go ahead, I was really cute. Not to say that I'm not really REALLY cute now.... But I prefer handsome, or striking since I am indeed all black and white.

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ONE!

Just take a look at this video and you will know the wisdom and truth of my title.


I took this a little while ago, before I went out of town, and I haven't seen this lucky little goat since. I certainly do miss him (to see his story, click HERE). But I Tuesday there was another white, leaping baby like this that we took care of indoors, but it was pure white and a little LAMB! Didn't get a picture though... too busy feeding a zillion baby birds. But no one can replace the little guy above, the first goat I've ever held and fed. Awwwww!

I WAaaaaant one! Don't you?

Adorable Goat update

If you are asking WHAT GOAT right about now, click those red words (or click on the Goat Category on the right of this page).

For those of you who've been hankering (commenter Kilpy and Alice) for a little more of the baby goat, here he is on a day he went outside to enjoy the sunshine and a little grass in the Wildlife Center's new outdoor pens.

'Tis just a moment, but sweet all the same.

Bill and Ted's Nutritional Adventure

There is a lovely man named Bill who comes in several days a week to take care of the outdoor animals. There are wooden pens just outside the building that is home to a rotating list of birds, ducks, pelicans and geese. If we have any in, we let turtles sit out in the sun on the landing in water with rocks and plants, but bring them in at night. Further out there's a long row of wire pens for barnyard animals. We have baby pigs out there now, and several goats. Bill cares for them all with lots of love.

Here is Uncle Bill feeding Teddy, our baby goat, who has become a fave of the readers of this blog!




If you listen carefully, you can hear the cock a doodle do's in the background, from the rescued roosters (and chickens and chicks) that are still living next door.

Growin' Horns!

For those of you who fell in love with the baby goat I came back in a week and he'd already begun to grow horns!

It's in goats nature to climb, which might account for the charming and hysterical little leaps he was taking when he first arrived. CLICK HERE to see that -- you should not miss it if you haven't.

So now, less than 2 weeks later, he is able to get up on some things, and he was amusing himself and all of us by using a swivel chair. OH endless funnies... but we tear ourselves away to go back to cleaning and feeding. PS: I promise you, in real life I don't talk with the high squeaky voice you hear on these videos!

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Yodelhe Yodlehe Yodle-le he Hooooooo

Here we have the little goat from the zoo that I mentioned in this last post. He was born last spring (I've had these photos sitting around!).  By now his little horns must have come in and he's grown big and strong. They named him Domino, a fitting choice, indeed.

He was taken home each evening by the keepers and bottle fed all through the night. They said they were tired, as all new mom's are -- but it's clear that they wouldn't trade the work in for the world! Domino just charmed the heart of everyone he met... mine included.

Isn't he just adorable? I totally envied this keeper who could pick him up like this and take him to her house to sleep! He'd come back in to work with her at the zoo all day, so she could be near to feed him as often as his own mother would.  While he got to follow her on some of her rounds, he got more and more time in the hoofstock pen to become acclimated to his real home -- the large yard where the other goats and sheep live.  There he'd make friends and learn how to do goat things.

At the time I was fairly new to the zoo and aching to be able to hold him and feed him a bottle. But that is the job of the staff caregivers. Little did I know that I would get the chance at the Wildlife Center almost a year later.  A good lesson in life.  When you really want something, wait a little.  It often is just around the corner, and will happen in it's own time and it's own way.  

I WANT ONE!!!!

Thursday at the Wildlife Center, a woman in a business suit and heels brought in a baby goat, who we figure was no more than 2 days old. She told of how it sat on her lap as she drove all the way in, snoozing peacefully.

She cooed as she handed him over to the two women who run the Center. The goat had lipstick on his nose, and everyone laughed, not sure if it was from the lady who brought him to us or those who had received him. I figured it was a normal drop off, as we get them all through the day from folks who find hurt or abandoned wildlife. But I heard that she had already adopted the little guy and we were to care for him during the day. Clearly not the norm, I couldn't quite figure that part out.

She'd also brought him in an animal crate, like someone might use to carry their small dog on a plane, and had a bottle and formula all ready for us to feed him. I later learned that she is the head of the SPCA and had found the baby goat in the middle of the road when she was driving home the night before! The guess is that he was being transported with other livestock (including his mother) and had somehow fallen off the truck or through the slats (apparently such transportation has wooden slats -- oh this city girl has much to learn about country life).

She named him Teddy. Forget the term lucky duck... What a LUCKY GOAT to be found by her of all people! So, we will babysit until he's big enough to live at her farm. He needs lots of love, attention, room to play and multiple feedings -- and he's gotten it.

I took four little movies of this darling boy, and could barely decide which to show. This first one is of him playing as I kneeled to take a video. You can hear the tiniest little bleat at one point in the middle.



What surprised me was how acclimated to people Teddy is. In the movie below you might be able to make out that his umbilical cord is attached. He prances around and follows you like a puppy. This was also true of a baby goat born at the zoo who was rejected by the mother, that 2 young caregivers were raising. From day one, baby goats come when you call, scurry after you when you walk to another room, love to sit in your arms or in your lap and let you pet them. They even wag their tail in response when you talk to them. And they seem very happy indoors as if it were totally natural. WHO KNEW???


(WARNING: Goat leaps WILL cause your vocal chords squeeze out impossibly high notes)
I KNOW you want one too!


CLICK HERE and HERE for Teddy updates

Time Wasters

I have such a good story for the next post. I wrote it three nights ago on my tiny iPhone keypad, using one finger... But since I'd pre-loaded the baby duck photo, the giraffe video and the picture below, that story had to wait its turn. So please check back in a day or so! In the mean time, this post is part of the continuing series of Adventures that occurred on our honeymoon. By virtue of spending 3 wks in New Zealand and an additional week (too short) in Australia, I collected a plethora of adventures in nature, ranging from the usual to the outrageous and extreme.

Today's mention fits into the category of the former, though having never spent time with goats, let alone ones names Ringo and Lilly, I personally found nothing usual about it!

This is on the rolling 40 acre homestead of my friends who moved from LA about 6 years before, to live out their dream of a simple, good life. They found this land with a house they've since rennovated - mostly with their own hands. While these two goats are theirs and they hope to have more animals, for now they lease out much of it for sheep to graze (a great way to mow and fertilize the land while bringing in a bit of cash). They mulch, they built and grow most of their own fruits and vegetables and make most of their own furniture. He's a volunteer fireman and edits arthouse movie trailers, she started a theater co., helped wheelchair bound kids experience freedom by learning to ride horses, writes,sews and goes into nearby Auckland to see plays. They're great cooks and have made lots of friends to keep them busy, as if the things I've listed aren't enough!

All of this is to explain the title of this post. These goats are so amusing that my friends feel they spend far too much time being distracted from their many chores by them. Hence their nickname -- time wasters! They come right over to you at the fence like this and won't let you go. They want treats, pats on the head, their ears scratched. That's Ringo in the foreground with a look that says, " Drop the camera and give me BETTER attention!" I admit it took a little getting used to their eyes- the pupils are horizontal rather than vertical, which gives off a kind of alien vibe.

They are leash trained so they can come out of their pen to enjoy long walks. Perhaps the funniest part is when they may wantto go faster or stray off the path and told no. They express themselves by delivering a nice little headbutt to the behind of whomever's holding that leash. Once our friends finally free themselves from these two hooligans and indeed get back to work Lilly and Ringo can be seen settling in atop the tin roof of their shelter (as goats love to climb) perhaps to keep an eye on their masters, or better yet, coerce them into coming back.

Though I have much yet to write on our adventures in New Zealand, there are a few others to be found under that label on the right of this page