Tear
Good goat times with the littles today. A lovely warm day, bit cloudy but some sun too. Although Milo did try to assassinate me today.
We’d been out running on the mountain (okay, they had) and I ran out of battery. So I went back to the goat house to get my scare, and Milo and Sky followed me of course. I replaced the battery and wanted to go back down to the mountain. Walking down the hill I figured they two little speedsters would come racing past me. Instead Milo ran right into my legs. So I stood there on the goat hill in one of those moments where you’re flailing your arms and you’re not sure if you’re going to be getting a faceful of dirt or if you’ll be able to regain balance. Thankfully I regained balance. No more broken ribs, for now. That little menace.
Other than that a lot of fun running and sweet relaxing. With the feathers fluttering about and Jeanette doing her chores. Good for what ails ya.
22/5 2023
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The little **** planning his next attack.
22/5 2023
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Speaking of ASMR, you should hear me getting up and out of my chair.
22/5 2023
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The kids out working in the fields.
23/5 2023
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For the premium subscribers, highlights from yesterday’s goofing around on the mountain. I
ncluding me almost falling. It’s a lot less dramatic in camera pov than it felt in my head.
23/5 2023
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a goatlog
23/5 2023
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Okay. Serious post. I wasn’t sure if I should write about this. Since there is still a chance, I hope, that things will work out fine, and I don’t want to worry people for nothing. But it helps me to write out stuff and I want you all to know what’s going on.
If you don’t care about the goats you can skip this, and there will be a TLDR summation in the first comment.
But, we are having a problem with Milo at the playground. You all know he’s a bandit, and that’s one of the things I love about him. But he has a temper sometimes, like when we take kids into the pen we have to keep a close eye on him because he sometimes will headbutt the kids. And unfortunately I have been told that there are several of the caretakers who are scared of him. He has apparently attacked a couple of them. And I have been told that it was like.. ‘viciously attacked’. One guy had to flee and was bruised from it. Last week when I went there Wednesday Maja told me that the goats had been out overnight because the guy who was supposed to lock them in at night hadn’t been able to get near Milo. And it has gotten to be a big problem now that the most of the caretakers are scared of him and that they can’t take kids into the pen if Jeanette isn’t there.
The vet was thare last week for a checkup (Milo and Sky both in good health) and she suggested that maybe they shouldn’t have goats at all if they can’t take properly care of them. But, I think it was Jeanette who made the case, the goats are big draw for visitors, so they would still want to have goats. But there is talk now that they may have to let Milo go.
I am sure you can imagine what a gut punch that was for me to hear. After losing Mia. Milo and Sky are the one thing that has kept me going, and I can’t stand the though of losing another friend. I love that little stinker, even if he tries to trip me.
Ugh. I am not sure what to do or what will happen. I can’t remember if I ever wrote about it, but back in the day we started having a bit of an issue with Herman. Some of you remember him, he was an amazing buck. But he did at one point start getting a little aggressive, even towards me. What I did back then, after some internet research, was to take a spray bottle of water. And a couple of times when it looked like he was going to charge me I sprayed water in his face. It doesn’t hurt them but they absolutely hate it. And I think I only had to do it a couple of times and he learned his lesson and he was good after that. So, I am wondering if I can do that with Milo. I have mentioned it to Jeanette, and she asked the vet about it and the vet said it wouldn’t do any good. But it did with Herman, so… the problem is that he never attacks me or Jeanette. I have a hard time even believing he would do it to anyone. I know he doesn’t like being touched around his rear and rear legs, he’ll swing his head at you if you do it and he sometimes goes after kids, but I have never seen him really ‘attack’ like they say. But because he doesn’t do it with me or Jeanette we can’t spray him to stop him doing it. And I don’t think the other caretakes are able to really do it.
I don’t know. I think I may try to ‘trigger’ him wih touching his rear legs and then spray his face when he butts. I would feel like a jerk doing that, but I don’t know what else to do. And I am really worried now.
If they do let him go, I don’t know what will happen to him. Jeanette talked about asking if the family that took SNL would take him too. I am worried if that’s not possible they could end up putting him down. i know that’s abhorrent to us, but it’s a tight situation. Ressources are very low. You know some playgrounds had to get rid of animals alltogether and others have been outright closed. Our playground can’t afford to keep Milo around to make me happy, even though I know Jeanette would do it if she could. If the caretakers can’t do their job and if they can’t take kids into the pen, I think they will have to get rid of him, and I don’t know how many ressources they would have to spend on rehoming him. It sickens me. Afterl osing Mia. Losing Milo too. Even just rehoming, it would be so cruel to split Milo and Sky. You have seen them play together. They are family. They just lost their adoptive mother. It would be so wrong to take them away from each other. But i am worried this is what is going to happen.
This miserable year just keeps going.
So yeah. I don’t know. If goat forbid Milo leaves, they will have to find a new companion for Sky. Sky is still the perfect little playground goat. Jeanette told me that there’s another playground that has two goat kids that they can’t keep. Two little girls. And there is talk of us taking one or both. While I have talked about how much I miss having goat kids around, I really don’t want to lose Milo. It’s not fkn fair.
I hope for the best, but I am not feeling optimistic. I can see it from their point of view, it’s not good for a playground to have a goat that can’t be around kids and that half the staff are terrified of going near. Unless I make some miracle with the water spray, I don’t see how we can get a good outcome.
I remember when we left the old playground, Anne who worked there was so happy that we were taking Milo, because she had been worried they wouldn’t be able to find a home for him because of his temper. So he’s always, more or less, had that thing. I don’t know if he was teased when he was little or something, or if it’s just a natural part of his nature. And I don’t know if it’s gotten worse after Mia passed, because he may be asserting himself more because now he’s in charge.
The two kids from the other playground are ready to move very soon, in the next couple of weeks I think, so things could happen very fast all of a sudden. I don’t think we have a lot of time to go on.
I just hate it.
I’ll let you all know when I know more of course.
24/5 2023
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Thank you everyone for the comments on the Milo post. We will hope for the best. I am not optimistic. But thanks for the suggestions and support.
Here is a video showing what happens every time I leave the goats. When Mia was there I had to lock them up inside because she’d just jump the fence. Milo and Sky can’t do that. But they can’t bleat their little lungs out. You can hear them go into that manic range. They did that a lot right after Mia passed, calling for her I guess. After a while that stopped. Now they only really go into that mode when it’s time for me to leave. And they seem to be able to sense when i’m about to go. I guess it’s when they see me packing the backpack and stretching, they know what’s coming. And then when I go down the hill the choir starts for serious.
I don’t know if you can still hear them well at the end of the video, but they keep going for a while after I stopped recording, i’m not sure if they stop bleating when I turn the corner further down the road or if it’s just that they are out of earshot. But they sure make me feel guilty for leaving.
And I hope we can keep it like that.
24/5 2023
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Horrible news, everyone. Jeanette informed me today that the decision has been made to let Milo go.
As you can imagine I am devastated. Losing SNL last year, the heartbreak of Mia’s passing and now having to say goodbye to my bandit buddy. It is making me feel sick. I know Jeanette feels bad about it too, she could barely sleep she said.
Ugh. So many feelings. I should just get the facts out I guess. In about two weeks Jeanette is going to go to that other place and pick out two little girl goats for us.She asked if i wanted to come, and I’ll probably go with. A week after that they will be ready to come stay with us. And by then Milo has to leave. So that’s about 3 weeks. Jeanette said if we needed a few more days to make it work, they could do that. But he’ll hae to go. And he can almost certainly not go stay at the family that took SNL. So that means we need to find a home for him in the next 3 weeks time. I am really worried he’ll be put down. He can’t go to another playground, with his potential problems with kids and maybe others he would not be good choice for any place looking for social goats. So then what. Denmark is a tiny country, I don’t think there are a lot of sanctuaries that can take goats like this. So I don’t know. I am scared for him. I told Jeanette about Dyrenes Beskyttelse, the Danish animal welfare society. I had brought them up at the old place when we were looking for something for SNL too. I don’t know if the people at the old place actually every contacted them or if they were no help or watever. But Jeanette is a member and it’s worth looking into.
So I am going to lose Milo. And I feel like I don’t know how to keep going on, everything just gets worse and worse. I’d rather get rid of the rest of the staff and keep Milo. But i know that’s not how it works. I understand why they can’t keep him. But it’s not fair. My heart breaks thinking of them splitting Milo and Sky. It’s so sad. And them splitting me and them. Fck. All there’s left to hope now is that we can find a home for Milo so he doesn’t have to have the worst possible end. I feel like leaving and staying away in protest, but then I’d be abandoning Sky. She’ll need me more than ever. I will have to try to be there for her.
I wish there was something I could do. He’s such a wonderful goat with me and Jeanette.
But the decision is made now. I had brought water bottle today to try the spraying thing, but I decided not to even try. I can’t properly train him when the bad behaviour doesn’t happen when I’m around. And the people who are scared of him… well honestly they want to see him gone.
heartsick.
25/5 2023
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It just breaks my heart, and he doesn’t even know.
25/5 2023
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Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions about Milo. I am feeling slightly more optimistic today, we have some things to look at and I hope we will be able to find something good for Milo. It will be heartbreak all over again to see him go, but we need to keep him alive at least.
I wanted to tell you about something else that happened yesterday. I thought I was going to have another tragedy to tell you about. As if the decision to let Milo go wasn’t enough. I actually thought we lost Henrietta Solo, dramatically. Our big whtie hen.
I was sitting on the bench with Milo and Sky. And I heard a loud squawk from beyond the trees. Behind the the goat house and fencing there is some kind of I think maybe nature park or similar. I have never actually been back there, but I know it’s a public place. Apparently Henrietta likes wandering out there sometimes. I heard a man yelling “SIF!!!”. He was calling his dog. It sounded like an old married couple, the man said to his wife something like “did you see he took a chicken”. But the way he prhrased it, in Danish, what he said could both mean “did you see our dog took a chicken” or “imagine if our dog took a chicken”. Something like that. So I wasn’t sure. I told Jeanette about it and she went to investigate. She came back and told me she had found a bunch of white feathers and no sign of Henrietta. So. We thought we’d lost her. Jeanette was really upset about it too, she has a heart for animals. And Henrietta is such a sweet bird.
Well, I sat on the bench and was getting more and more depressed about everything. About 30-45 minutes later I think, I heard flapping. I looked up, and there ws Henrietta flapping her way up on the fence. Phew! I was so relieved to see her and Jeanette came walking and was really relieved too.
On the photo below you can see Jeanette checking her out. She came and showed me, there was some kind wound on her foot. She had definitely been attacked. But it didn’t seem to be bleeding and she seemed to be walking around okay and acting fine. So hopefully she won’t have any lingering effects from it. What a scare though.
I don’t know if that married couple had their dog on a leash, but I can’t imagine they did if the man had to shout for the dog, if he’d been on a leash they could have kept him away from Henrietta, right? I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to have dogs going free. Fckers. They sounded like some caricature of an old married couple who are together out of obligation and history but just resent each other. When the man said what had happened the woman said “DON’T YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME”. Sheesh. Your dog just attacked a poor innocent creature, why don’t you worry about that.
Well at least that turned out okay. Hopefully Milo’s situation will turn out as okay as possible. We are working on it. Thank you all for the love.
26/5 2023
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Here is Henrietta Solo on her triumpant return. I was so happy to see her thete. If you zoom into the background you can see Jeanette on her way, also happy to see Henrietta back. What a scare she had.
26/5 2023
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Breaks my heart to think of them being split up. But I am selfish and Id on’t want to lose Sky too… at the end of the day it won’t be up to me. It just sucks.
27/5 2023
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This is what I thought my summer would look like.
28/5 2023
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That’s all for now.