Cutie the Goat
Cutie was a Boer goat we bought about 8 years ago because her mother didn’t want to nurse her. It was our first endeavor bottle feeding a goat. She made it easy though.. slurping down bottles and being very agreeable to cuddling. She would parkour on couches and chairs until she got too big to let inside without the risk of significant damage. She free ranged our place along with the dogs. She was basically like a dog.. but instead of digging up things- she loved to eat whatever wasn’t nailed down. I couldn’t get too mad at her because it was in her nature and we didn’t want to tie her up or fence her in.. so we learned not to grow anything intentionally where she roamed. Our garden at the time was down the hill and out of sight; however, that didn’t stop her from tearing up other things and we began joking that she was truly a devil.
We eventually had to contain her voracious appetite and tie her out to a stake so she could keep the yard trimmed like a good goat. No sweat we thought.. how smart are we to have a lawn mower that doesn’t have to be pushed. It all went well for a minute until she discovered she could pull out the stake if it rained. And lucky was the goat who in doing so would find a barrel full of corn to dive into and eat her fill. So intermittently we were smarter than her. Over the years the things she destroyed accumulated until we said that she was a $1000 to $5000 goat (rough estimate on the things she destroyed). But still we loved her company and enjoyed watching her grow. She would follow us anywhere and seemed to enjoy hiking and carrying a light pack. Regardless of how cute she was, we would tell people that goats are the devil and that they should avoid getting any because of the cuteness/destructive factor.
Other goats came and went, but Cutie stayed.. she was family. She was never bred until early this year by surprise.. all of 8 years old. The birth of her kid was a traumatic thing to behold, but she survived much to her surprise.. the kid did too. She did not take to motherhood at first and would give the little guy a hard time when we would try to have him nurse. Luckily, we kept trying and after 48 hours she came around and things went swimmingly after that.
Monday she passed away unexpectedly, however being 8 we knew that she wouldn’t live forever. Her kid, Chewy, is doing good and has paired up with another kid that is a few weeks older and her mother is taking up some of Cutie’s slack. We buried her on top of the hill alongside Pixie, our mountain cur.
Birth and death are becoming more familiar to me since we are homesteading.. but it still stings. All I can do now is remember her at her best and worst and be thankful for both. She was the best and occasionally a devil.. she will be missed.