“We’re heading to see the new babies,” she told me as she got up from the table. “Are you ready?”
Smiling through the dread of the thought of wading through animal shit and straw with bacteria on it, I nodded. “Absolutely. Let’s go see them.”
Following behind them, I listened as they discussed the animals and she asked about the long-haired goats that she liked. Apparently, Sean knew someone who bred them in Texas, which didn’t say much given how big the State was, but okay.
“My friend has a fainting goat and a pygmy that are like dogs. They have a doggy flap in the back door that they go out of when they needed to go potty, but the rest of the time they hang around with her. She’s lucky because she works from home so she’s always there with them, but they’re actually like little children. I’d love to have that in my life.”
“Not going to get that with one of the bigger breeds, Ariana. You’ll have to leave your door open, and some of them get bored if they don’t have enough space to run around in,” Sean told her as he opened the door to the barn, letting us in before he closed it again.
What we’d walked into was nothing like I’d imagined. I’d pictured pigs, goats, horses, and sheep on bales of hay. Probably piles of shit all over the floor, food scattered everywhere with rats nibbling on it and shit like that. I wasn’t a country boy, farms and ranches weren’t my thing, so it made complete sense to me that it would look like that. Instead, there were enclosures and pretty fences with names written on them, the hay looked fresh and clean, the walkway between them only had a few pieces of hay on them but was otherwise spotless, and everything was organized neatly.
“Wow!” I looked around incredulously. “It’s like the animal version of the hospital.”
And it was, even down to the baskets attached to each pen that had special items in them like medication or supplements.
“Yeah, gotta keep it neat, or you’ll give the wrong stuff to the wrong animal. Also got a feeding schedule for each pen, so we know they’re getting the right amount,” Sean pointed at a chalkboard on the wall with the numbers of the pens and names of the animals on it.
“What are these numbers?” Ari asked, pointing to a second row of them.
“The number of babies. If any die, we put them in this row here,” he pointed at the next one. So far, no deaths, something which made her very happy to see.
“I love it,” she breathed, looking around us again and almost melting when she saw something behind me. “Oh, it’s so cute!”
Giving me a look that screamed ‘typical woman,’ Sean shook his head as we followed behind her to where she was squatting in front of a small goat.
“That’s Gaynor who’s a fainting goat. She’s three months old, but she’s had some stomach problems so we brought her in to see the vet this afternoon.”
“Gaynor?” I asked at the same time that Ari asked if she could hold her.
“As in Gloria Gaynor,” Sean explained as he opened the gate to let her in. “When she bleats, we swear it sounds like I Will Survive, so we called her Gaynor.”
Just then, she let rip and started climbing on Ari’s knees and thighs, butting her head against her tits. Sure as shit, her baaaaaa sounded something like someone drunk singing the words ‘will survive.’
“I love her,” Ari whispered, sticking her face into her neck and laughing when Gaynor started frantically rubbing her head against her.
“Seems she feels the same way,” Sean muttered, watching them with amusement.
Moving closer and squatting down, I hesitantly brushed my finger down the goat’s side, shocked when I felt how silky but coarse the hair was. “How’s her stomach now?”
“Doc says she had too much green grass. Apparently she’s a beast when it comes to food and wants to eat more than her body can handle. We’re starving her for twenty-four hours, and then she’ll be given some food little by little.”
That sounded like what I’d suggest to one of my patients too. “What if she does it again?”
“She probably will,” he admitted, scratching his chin. “We have a zero euthanizing policy on the farm—unless it’s essential—so she’s going to take a lot of looking after.”
Meeting Ari’s eyes, I almost groaned when I saw the sparkle in them. I just knew what she was going to say.
I had one important question first, though. “What kind of goat is she?”
“A fainting goat. We’ve got a pygmy who has a similar problem, but hers is with grains, so I’ll probably keep them together so I can get someone to monitor their diets.”
Ari’s eyes lit up even more. “Where?”