Casper the Friendly Goat

We bought a house when I was pregnant with the "Blonde"  A roomy piece of property with a barn.  "Mommy" always loved horses and the thought was that we would finally be able to get her one.  The previous owners had a large goat housed in the barn.  I believe the real estate agent stated that she had never written a goat into a contract before.  Yes, we did!  The kids fell in love with the goat and named him Casper.

Casper was quite gentle.  The kids could and would pull on his tail and hang on him.  We were able to turn him loose in the yard and he followed the kids around like a big dog.  It was actually pretty cool.  I did later find out that "Calvin" and "Mommy"  would sneak handfuls of his food for themselves.  Honest - I fed those kids.  They just liked the taste of the molasses on his food.

A few years after we moved in, I noticed that Casper wasn't eating.  "Doc" had me call the vet to check on him.  He basically said, "This is an old goat.  He is going to die.  I could give him a bunch of medicine to prolong things, but I would be wasting your money." "Doc" said "okay".  I demanded a second opinion!  My kids loved this goat!  So a second vet came out and gave me instructions to feed the goat Karo Syrup by a syringe three times a day.  He gave him a couple of shots and went on his way. 

Well, we went out one evening and came home rather late.  We noticed that we had not seen Casper in the pasture.  When we got out of the car, we heard an horrific moaning.  Following the sound, we finally found Casper laying on his side in the pasture.  He was unable to stand and we had to put him on the tractor to get him inside the barn.  He lived another week before he finally passed on.  That goat was pampered and loved until he left us.  Thankfully, we have pictures of him with the kids.  I am not sure people would believe it without those.  I continued to have a soft spot for the animals that we have acquired over the years.  Remind me to tell you about the bunny and the emergency room some day.