So, I have mostly recovered from the mountain climbing. Although my calves are sore. At least I think it’s my calves. I left my anatomy dictionary in my other pants.
But let’s rewind and give a proper introduction to the two new pigs.
Oink, oink! Two lovely, little spotted piglets.
It was fun to see them explore their new home.
They seemed to like it. I made a video of their arrival: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ni4RrjKTDrc. You can see Kurt carry them inside and how everyone is ooohing and aaahing over them.
It was my day off so I went up there bright and early. And then I realized that Kurt wasn’t bringing them from his own place. He had to go to some lady and pick them up. Which meant that they wouldn’t be there early in the morning. So I ended up having something like 4 hours to kill before their arrival. Luckily I had the goats to keep me company so that wasn’t too bad. When I got there Kurt slapped me playfully on the back and said that I ought to get there at 10 every day. I asked why, and he said that he had had 20 kids standing in the rabbit house being too afraid to come out because the goats where outside. Haha. And yesterday when I got to the playground Alice was again chasing the goats away from the food containers. And she was glad to see me so I could keep the goats away from there. All in all I seem to be good at being a goat whisperer. Keeping the goats out of trouble. As much as humanly possible.
The goats weren’t too impressed with the new piglets I think. You can see in the video that they come in to check it out. But that’s it. The food containers happen to be right next to the pig sty so while everyone was looking at the pigs, the goats were snooping around for food instead.
Vanilje is pretty curious about other animals though. You saw her fascination with Lulu. And it was the same thing when this little fellow came by:
A pigeon.
Vanilje followed it around, of course it kept flying away from her. And eventually it flew up on the roof of a building so Vanilje had to give up the chase. I got a bit of it on video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sULj3DCFLB4. Funny. And then:
A new little bunny, being taken for a walk by a girl (whose head got cut off in the picture, oops). Again Vanilje very curious. She’s quite the adventurer, a veritable captain Kirk, meeting new species and boldly going where no goats have gone before.
It’s so great to have her back.
It was a nice day, Wednesday. Hanging out with the goats. And then meeting the piglets. Thursday was the field trip to the Mols mountains. I’ll make an entry about that tomorrow probably. With pictures en masse. Friday I got the day off. I was completely exhausted and sore so I called in sick, and Trine, my contact person, was very understanding. She was happy that I had managed to go. It was no problem for me to get the day off to recuperate. Which I did by going to the playground and sitting down with the goats.
The pigeon came by again. At least I think it’s the same one. It landed right in the middle of the little bunny pen. Vanilje was once again very interested in it, but she couldn’t get over the fence to the bunny pen so she just walked around on the outside and looked at it.
The piglets were out and about.
Digging through the dirt.
I think they like their new home. Lots of mud to roll around in. They’re still a bit jittery. If you make a sudden noise then they grunt and run away. But I did manage to reach down and touch one of them without any complaints. Kurt says that it’s an extremely friendly breed. He even said it would be possible to walk around downtown with them on a leash, like puppy dogs! Hah. I don’t think they’re planning to do it, but it still sounds fun.
Their snouts seem kind of long and thin, at least compared to Yvonne’s. I think it was Kurt or Per who said that they looked like ant-eaters! Hah. And when Kurt threw a handful of wheat on the ground for them on the first day they were eating it up, running their snouts over it like little, powerful vacuum cleaners.
There were some people there to see the goats too. They are studying to be teachers, as far as I understood. And they were doing a project about goats (or whas it animals in general?) and their effect on kids and education and other complex things that I didn’t quite pick up. But as part of their project they had to show that they had been around the goats and were comfortable with them and such. So they went around and took pictures and we talked a bit. It’s always nice when I get to talk about the goats. It’s one of the few subjects where I feel like I can actually talk. Actually have conversations. So that’s good for me. Magnethe was kinda pushing Vanilje around a bit so they asked if they were mother and daughter. I explained that they were sisters, that it was just a bit of sibling rivalry.
There they are, saying goodbye to the goats. There was a little girl too who came and sat next to me and talked for a bit and played a little with the goats. She was afraid of them but she didn’t let her fear get the best of her. Most of the kids are more or less afraid of the goats. Some just run away when they get near. It’s nice when there are kids who stay and intereact with the goats despite their apprehension. And then of course I try to help. I keep Mads in check and explain that they aren’t dangerous and so on. I see it as my duty as a goat whisperer to facilitate the inter-species communications. Look, it’s right here on my job description. (Okay, it’s just a piece of paper with some lines jotted down in red crayon).
I’ll finish off with a video I uploaded a few days ago and then forgot: http://youtube.com/watch?v=StPmxc9mgMg. I call it “wacky goats”. Because they’re acting rather wacky. Especially Mads in the beginning. He’s follow Magnethe around, sort of sniffing at her backside. And making odd grunts that you normally hear from ‘intact’ bucks. Mads is neutered. It’s very odd behaviour from him. And it seems to freak out Magnethe a bit too. She starts jumping around to get away. And then Vanilje starts running and jumping too. She’s quite easily excited. If one of the other goats runs or jumps then she’ll start too. And then Mads starts running around too, so pretty soon all three goats are just all over the place. Good fun. (Turn up the volume to hear Mads’s grunting better).
That’s all. Next on Plume: Mountaineering! (What a cliffhanger!)
