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["Melody O." <melody AT crecon.com>]

Hi Denise, 

Thanks for your response.  My reply is down below.

At 11:47 AM 12/31/04 -0500, Denise wrote:
>Hey Melody --
<snip>
>
>I don't have a lot of advice on that respect because we haven't ever had to 
>do much of it because we have allowed our goats to be raised with goats and 
>have never tried to tame them.  At all.  I abhore bottle raised goat babies. 
>I know how cute they are, I've done it, but I try very hard not to do it.  I 
>think all species are best raised by their own.  What we expect out of our 
>goats is to survive and to thrive with little to no input from us, to browse 
>and forage vigorously, to reproduce regularly, and to milk our milkers from 
>time to time.  We eat the extras or sell them.

We did get in a mess with this goat from the start, I'm afraid.  I bought
him at auction when I bought what I had been told was the mama.  When the
guy at the auction (who'd helped me determine that this particular kid
belonged with this particular mama) handed the kid through the gate he
explained he'd made a mistake, the baby that belonged with my mama goat had
been sold earlier.  ARGH!  I had bought the kid to nurse the mama until
Steve got home from a business trip since I didn't know how to milk.  But
the kid was so friendly and cute that my children instantly thought we
should keep him forever.  

The kid, now billy, lives in our backyard with the chickens, nanny goat,
and rabbits.  Our backyard is our little farmyard.  Unfortunately, that is
also where the trampoline is, since the house insurance will only cover us
if the trampoline is within a fenced yard and the backyard is the only
portion of our yard that is fenced.  So the billy has grown up with the
children going back there to play.  I can't separate him out into a pasture
because we have none.  

So, that is our predicament.  I appreciate your response.  I am afraid we
are going to end up butchering him.  Yesterday I went out to take care of
the animals and he came up behind me and butted me in the back of my leg
(not hard, just enough to get my attention), then proceeded to stand up
with his hooves on my back to try to get the food.  It might turn out that
being too friendly isn't as good of a quality as I thought.  The nanny only
likes humans when she is hungry, otherwise she would rather be left alone.
When I go out to do chores, billy will get in front of me trying to see
what he can get; nanny stays out of the way, and if she does get in the way
I gently pat her and she bleats and runs away.  I guess her unfriendliness
has its advantages. :-)

Best wishes,
Melody