well here we go ,

one fine day , we decided to trade one of our saanens for some nice yearling alpine does,

well, we completed the trade , and got these , very wild young gals home, one decided , she would much rather not be a herd member , and jumped out of the back of the truck , and high tailed it for parts unknown,

we spent about 3 hours walking around following her, and i spenat about 2 hours on the horse, trying to slowly herd her back to the farm ( we live in North Dakota, the direction she headed off in has no neighborse for nearly 3 miles)

well, that was sunday , after noon , no luck , i went out again on the horse on monday , and didnt find any sign of her at all, meanwhile , her sister has come into heat and been introduced to the ways of "amour" by our buck.... well, another night goes by , and i heard the coyotes singing again , so , i resigned to the fact that she was wild food now .....

well , tuesday morning, i am out riding , and agin, in the direction she had headed , across the ifeld , well, again , still no sign of goat, kind of impossible to track her , since there are so many deer... :9, so after a nice ride , but still bummed as the uncertainty of her i returned home , was out in the yard messing around , and such , took our car out , for a test after finishing some work on it , so.. yep i lookedo ut in the field , and there is a little black and white deer out there :) yes , so i turned round quick , praying she wouldnt take off, went to the house , grabbed a coffee can , headed to the barn , casting looks over my shoulder to make sure she wasnt gone .. got some grain , and on an off hand thought , told Aries , our cart wether he was coming for a walk :), so , ihead out of the barn , me the goat , a can of feed and an extra rope , start walking across, when one of the dogs comes up, ah , yes , herd dog , not a good idea to scared goat , so , we turn around , and get all three dogs tied up :) and head out with Aries, no good , dogs start barking ... so , still looking across the field to make sure she hasnt wandered off , i get them all back inside ... then , again Aries and i head out :) across the field , in the warm weather we had , turned all muddy, Aries has decided , goats dont need mud in thier hooves , so he is getting balky, so , i have to coax him out to her, with the grain , well, i get there , and shewont let me even reach a hand out , before she turns and trots off a few feet , o i sit there , and pretend to tie my boot, drives my goats at home nuts , they got to see what i am doing , well she is no diff, i look up and am eye to eye with her , of course , as soon as i move , she trotts off again ...finally , i put down the grain on the ground , well Aies is so happy , he is making , what i call snuffles, little goat murmurs of happiness, well..... this young doe comes up , and sniffs the grain , and decides , Aries needs none of it , so she gives him a big head butt!, and starts chowing , ,i am just foot and a half from her, but i dont want to miss and scare her off, so i dont dive for her, which is what all my instincts are telling me to do , dive and catch her...any how, i just kind of headed out here in a tangent , its been about 30 minutes now with her moving off any time i shift , so , sitting out here, in the middle of a 100 acre field , just past our huge pond, wind blowing , and i am in just a sweatshirt, i give , up , and decide to go home , i get up, she trotts off , again ...and tell aries , lets go home , i walk off a few feet , and see out of the corner of my eye, shes following :0 but , keeping aries between me and her, so i cant catch her.... at that point i smile to myself and say , yeah goats are herd animals..... duh!

so , thats how it went , me and aries in thelead , her a few paces behind, the whole way home(about 1/4 mile) back onto our property , and right to the barn , and inside, with only a moments hesitation at the door....

so , a good ending in all, even better , was last night when this pretty yearling doe decided she was one of the "dairy does" , and came in the milk room and jumped on the stand to help herself to some missed grain

-- Beth Van Stiphout (willosnake@hotmail.com), February 07, 2002

Answers

Beth, I am so glad that your story had a good ending and the doe is in the barn waiting to be a milk goat. It certainly cheered me up and I love happy endings!

-- Karen Mauk (kansashobbit@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.

I loved your story! I am so glad you were able to herd her back! Also glad the coyotes weren't hungry :) Back when we started out I ran auction barn goats. Two were so wild that as I backed up my pickup to the barn, they scooted out from my reach, jumped the barn door, the fence out back. One doe we never did find, the other, a call from the neighbor with "you gotta black goat?" It was when I decided no more wild goats for me! Kind of hard to make a profit off of goats that run away :) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 07, 2002.