My sister, Lenora, came to visit this past weekend. She lives on 12 acres next door to where we grew up in Swartz. She bought chickens first and gave me 4 of her first chicks. Now I am encouraging her to get goats. I particularly want her to get a male goat, so I can borrow it. Anyway, she came to see my fence, goat house and the girls, Dottie Belle and Gypsy. In her research she came across the adage, "If a fence won't hold water, it won't hold a goat." Of course I laughed when she told me that. I'm very proud of my fences. There is a 6 ft. wooden fence on three sides and then the 4 ft. chain link that Don and I just put up. Well today I found out that my fence not only fails to hold water, but Gypsy and Dottie Belle as well.
It was about 3 pm this afternoon and Bridget was walking home with the baby. I was watching them from the carport door. I could hear some people in the shopping center beside my house laughing and really carrying on. But that's not unusual, there's a nice restaurant with a bar and a patio right on the other side of my fence. I often hear people sitting out there having good, loud conversations. It did occur to me that somebody was having a great time. Then a lady in a car stopped Bridget and asked her if she had a pet goat. Bridget said, "My mom does. She lives right there." And she pointed to my house. Bridget was thinking the lady had heard about my goats and wanted to see them. I get a lot of people dropping in to see the South Highland herd and flock. Then the lady, Mrs. Adams, said, "A white goat with some black on it and a pink harness is over at the bank." I was still outside, so Bridget yelled at me, "Mom, one of your goats is at the bank." I took off running as fast as I could. It is a little ways to get to the bank though it is exactly behind my house. But I have to go out the gate in the fence beside Ristorante Giuseppe, run a few yards down Pillow Street between my yard and Giuseppe and the through Regions Bank parking lot.
I tell all of this so you will know that I had a few minutes to hear the conversations going on about Gypsy. I was so focused and horrified that she got out, I forgot to ask the lady, who was restraining Gypsy with a leash made from a purse strap, her name. But I recognized her from one of the guilds of which I'm a member, probably the Opera Guild. One lady in a car was yelling at her, "The Times is on their way. I bet they will put your picture with the goat on the Society Page." She was having a great laugh at her friend standing just outside the bank's door with a little goat on a leash. Gypsy's savior replied, "When my husband (she said his name but I could not catch it in my frantic state) asks me what I did today, he is never going to believe this."
That's when I made it to her. I didn't even introduce myself. I get so focused on "the event"; I rarely think of anything else. Just get the goat, find out how she got out and take her home and fix it. The lady returned the purse strap to someone in the bank and came back and showed me the spot under the back fence where Gypsy had squeezed out. While we were standing there looking and talking about it, Dottie Belle stuck her head from under the fence. The lady said, "You take that one home and I'll keep this one from getting out." Before she could finish the sentence and I could tell her that there is noway to stop a determined goat; out from under the fence popped Dottie Belle. I hope I told her thanks, but all I was thinking about was carrying 50 pounds of goats home. I had not stopped to grab their leashes I keep right at the back door. I tried to carry a goat under each arm, like I had just a month ago, but ended up dragging them by their harnesses. Hopefully, I have blocked their escape route. I wasn't dressed to do a lot of work. But I have some big chunks of broken concrete from Bridget's remodeling project that I was planning to use as fill for a water feature with a waterfall, (Just another project I have yet to convince dear Don to help me with.) so I placed them all along the back fence. But the fence still won't hold water, so can I expect it to hold Gypsy, the ring leader, and Dottie Belle, the follower? I'm also glad I paid for a Lifetime Membership in the Guild, so hopefully they can't kick me out.
Gypsy and Dottie Belle love jumping on the chicken coops and cars. We have to get their playground built. That is why I have all that scrap lumber in a pile there. Yes, another project for Don to help me with. I could really keep him busy, if he would just cooperate a little more.