I love my animals. They are a constant source of joy and hilarity. There’s just nothing like a chicken following you around the yard like a dog or watching the goats literally skip across the yard with glee! They have distinguishable social skills and are eternally grateful for each morsel you feed them, until it’s gone, of course.
To provide extra safety to our goats we recently installed an electric fence inside their penned area to keep our little Houdini’s from getting out in the yard. We don’t mind letting them graze while under supervision, but when they are not being watched they morph into locusts and devour everything in site. Our bushes were unidentifiable all summer….just naked. Our neighbors thought we had been hit with blight.
Ok, so the electric fence was installed more for my piece of mind and to hopefully recover some semblance of green in the front yard before winter. Selfish, I know.
We were basking in our success of installing the fencing and relieved we did not have to worry about them escaping and cleaning out the chicken feed when our little mama goat began to appear in the yard. She is smart. She would wait until we weren’t looking and sneak out into the yard. We would put her back in the pen and in less than five minutes she would be back in the yard. We could not believe she was making it past the electric fence.
Now you have to understand, all we have to go by is the pulse light on the charger box to know that the electricity is running through the fence. We don’t have a suitable way to check each line as of yet. Greg suggested maybe I should touch it, but I’m just not ready for a perm right now.
After several days of trying to watch how this goat gets out, Greg has his bait of it and chained her to a tree inside the pen to teach her a lesson. I told him goats don’t think quite like us so I’m not sure she understands the deeper underlying message. They’re smart, not philosophical.
This morning we unhooked our little lady goat and within two minutes she was out. At this point I decided I was not going to be outwitted by a goat. That’s just too embarrassing. I may not be smarter than a fifth grader, but I’m sure smarter than a goat.
I walked down the side of the pen and found the escape hatch. They just have to have a space big enough for their head to get through – but she was having to get on the other side of the electric fence – plus Greg had put a collar on her wrapped with wire and prongs so she’d get an extra shock. Don’t tell PETA. Greg got her collar and pulled her back into the pen and we made a trek down to the escape hatch. Little mama goat walked down with us and decided she’d give us a demonstration! Yes, pride cometh before a fall….. apparently the bottom wire of the fence was not hot as she slipped underneath it. Then she walked over to the hole and tried to go through it. Just as she did, the wires coming out of the collar got hung in the fence and she backed right into the upper wires of the electric fence – those wires were hot! I’m not quite sure of the exact voltage she felt for that brief moment…..but I do believe I heard a distinct buzzzzt.
Of course, this gives new meaning to the old idiom “to get someone’s goat”….
I’ll go see to my stylist if I want curls.
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