"Al"ison, the Nanny Goat

My grandmother bought a goat in honor of my grandfather for his birthday.  She thought long and hard and decided she wanted it to be a nanny, "So it could produce more goats" and she wanted to name it "Al"ison after my grandfather, Al.

Great!  We have found that goats are one of our better ventures here at the Village of Eden - they seem to thrive.

Then, my mother, as she sat on her soft couch in her air conditioned house decided that I should get a picture of said nanny goat, to send to my granny.  No problem.

But, as she sipped her coffee leisurely, she decided that just any picture wouldn't do - the goat should be wearing a hat!  "Al"ison the Nanny Goat, in a hat.

So, being the loyal, loving daughter and granddaughter I am, I endeavored to get this picture.  (My hat will never be the same. . . )

I went yesterday evening to get my picture, after the goats were locked up in their pen for the night.

I must admit, just the prospect of getting inside the small, overcrowded pen with the goats made me nervous and question my resolve. Goats are flighty and unpredictable in my experience - head butting, urinating, pooping and the like - you never know what or when.

 But, I ventured in, trying to spot a worthy nanny of my grandfather's name and my hat.

I then timidly started trying to get the hat on the goat.  The whole herd started running around the pen.  I realized that selecting a specific goat was not going to work.  I decided that if that goat was female, that was good enough!

I held out the hat, trying to see if one didn't bolt at the sight of it.  No takers.

So!  I tossed the hat onto the first available female head and snapped a picture (see above).  Then, the goat panicked and began running around in circles!  Which caused all the others to run too!

The worst of it was that my hat was hung on the horns of the goat!  I briefly considered sacrificing the hat, but decided I had to get it back.  I chased this goat around this pen.  She ran, her kid ran too, trying to nurse and I ran in circles.  I don't think I have to tell you how I felt at this point about my mother's "great idea".

 Finally, the hat fell off the horns and behind this other nanny (see above).  I reached in and grabbed the hat just before one of her kids began urinating right where my hat had fallen!

I recovered the hat, brushed off who knows what and left the pen.  Forget Mama's idea, I'll just tell Granny how much we appreciate "Al"ison the Nanny and be done with it.