We needed a pair of browsers to forage in a field some distance away from the house, so we got a pair of young goats. I didn’t realize how small they are when we agreed to buy them, and I’m a little concerned the coyotes will eat them if we put them out too early. They’re currently wandering around the yard, looking for activities. There are lawn chairs to fold, piles of lumber to topple, and once they figure out a way to snake in, an entire orchard to eat.
Lopez (tentatively)
Leapez (also tentative)
rurritable 
11 comments
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July 22, 2009 at 11:36 am
Nance
You come up with the best animal names ever. Are Ethel Merman Vermin and William Tecumseh Sherman Vermin still living at Chez C’dad?
July 22, 2009 at 11:51 am
coozledad
Nance: They died shortly after we moved here. They were already past their anticipated lifespan when they were either taken by natural predators or the former neighbor’s dogs. We let them range, and one day they just didn’t show up to be fed and watered.
I suspect it was the dogs, because since the neighbors were evicted we haven’t had a significant predator problem. We lose a rooster to foxes or hawks every now and then, but I figure that’s a fair trade for keeping the squirrel population in check.
The goats are part La Mancha, hence the tiny tube-shaped ears. I tried in vain to get photos that show how insectoid they look in person. They insisted on cranking up the cute instead.
July 23, 2009 at 12:33 am
Pamela
Seriously adorable goats.
July 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm
pato'
Curiosity killed the cat? Nuh-uh. Goats win. And they also like to climb on things, which I’m guessing you’re already well acquainted with. I remember driving by a tumble-down farm in rural eastern Nevada one afternoon, and out in a weedy field, in the middle of the field, was a goat. It was standing atop an upturned 5-gallon bucket.
July 24, 2009 at 2:07 pm
MichaelG
What Pato said. My not any more wife’s goats in Auburn love to stand on an upturned tractor tire that is partially buried. They’re also lots of fun to watch when they practice their goat fu. The property there is fenced and cross fenced and we (now she) never had problems with coyotes inside the fence. If the coyotes did have access, I believe they would kill the goatie oaties. On the other hand, a family of bobcats resides on a corner of the property and they have never bothered anyone but the chickens whom we had to get rid of. Just don’t feed them any wet COB or they’ll turn their backs on the weeds. That happened in Auburn and the girls (Maggie and Daisy) turned into happy little welfare slugs.
July 24, 2009 at 2:15 pm
coozledad
We haven’t lost any sheep to coyotes, but the neighbors keep telling us there’s a pack of about thirty or so that live in the woodlot beside our house. I’m just being a little careful with these guys because they’re ridiculously tame. I suspect it’s as though we just bought a couple of exotic dogs.
July 27, 2009 at 12:19 am
littleaugury
I swear one looks like James Joyce. Don’t you see it?
July 27, 2009 at 8:40 am
coozledad
Now that you mention it, yes. Maybe it’s this sketch by Mina Loy:
http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/jj_mina_loy.html
or the pinhead’s rootless cosmopolitanism.
July 29, 2009 at 3:44 pm
ImaginistaΔ
Your pet collection never fails to delight and amuse.
August 11, 2009 at 5:46 pm
thesubtlerudder
HOW DID I MISS THIS POST???
Adorbs…except that one side shot of Lopez looks a lot like those dinosaurs with the lumpy profiles. Damn, what are they called? Where’s a five year old kid when I need him???
August 11, 2009 at 6:09 pm
coozledad
The section on dinosaurs in my family’s volumes of Childcraft featured a picture of a duck-billed saurian that looked exactly like my cousin Dave. Lopez and Leapez have acquired new nommes de guerre from Tammie, who refers to them as Surewood and Spurtnik.