Years ago we bought 10 acres to build our home and have horses on it. Actually, the horses were on the property before we had our home built. It was more cost effective to have them on our property than to board them. Anyway, the horses were on the property and a friend of ours, who was a part time farmer and owned some farm animals, gave us a goat for a "farm warming" gift. It was a young billy goat that had horns. Jerry, our farmer friend, brought the goat over when we weren't there and from what the neighbors told us, he did not want to stay with the horses. Kept ducking under the fence to get away and Jerry was right after him. Finally, the goat did decide to stay, but only when he was on thop of the roof of the run in shed. (Don't ask me how he got there.) He did finally get used to the horses.
He loved to butt you when you were dishing out the feed for the horses and had your back turned towards him. Even when you tried to keep your eye on him, he still managed to butt you. Sometimes he even tried to get into the feed barrals to eat out of them while you were scooping up the food. He was always there around you. Since I lived a few miles away from the property, I went up 2-3 times a day to feed and care for the horses. The times I was absent, neighbor boys kept their eye on them and helped out.
The one evening, I went up to feed as usual. Everything seemed normal when I was up there and the neighbor boys hung around after I left. When I got home, which was only about 5 - 10 minutes later, the neighbor boys had called to say that our goat was dead to come back up. Now, how, I'm wondering, did the goat die within a few minutes. Everyone was fine when I was up there. I went back up to the horses and brought a trash bag with me so that if, indeed, the goat was dead, I could put him into the bag. The boys and their father met me upon my arrival. They explained what happened. Since the mare (female horse, in case you didn't know) was in heat, the goat decided to mount her. The mare did not appreciate that and kicked the goat right in the head. Well, at least the goat died without suffering. Now, the big question. What to do with the body? It was starting to turn dark and digging a hole for him now would be out of the question. I asked the neighbor to help put it into the trash bag and put it into the back of the car for me. (I had a hatchback at the time.) I drove home with the windows down for obvious reasons. I asked my husband to unload the goat from the car and he said he would as soon as he was done with what he was doing.
In the meantime, my brother-in-law, who was a teenager at the time, parked his "car" behind the hatchback. He parked it so close that we couldn't open the hatch up, so we asked him to move his car. Guess what? He couldn't get his "car" started. After tinkering with his car, we finally got it started and moved it. By this time rigamortis had set in and the goat was stiff as a board. What do we to do with a dead stiff goat when we get him out of the car? My husband came up with the brilliant idea to put the goat in the trash can until we can bury it. It is pitch black out now and here he is trying to get the goat into the trash can. He ended up using a crow bar to break the legs so that it would fit. I can imagine what the neighbors were thinking. Anyway, finally he was in the can and we put the lid on and taped it shut. It ended up raining the next day so the horrid chore was not done until the following day.
This is not something I want to go through again and I will think twice before getting another goat. Although, I have to admit, this is quite an unbelievable story that will be told for years to come. In a way I am glad it did happen.
