Goat Drama

I live in a typical suburban neighborhood, fairly conservative with a population that boats, drives pick ups, and vote Republican. I'd say we might be a bit of the exception-little more liberal with our viewpoints, yet Alan comes from a farming background so we have introduced some of those concepts in the neighborhood. Alan's garden is the talk of the neighborhood and certainly when we acquired chickens, that was the new topic of chatter. Since the arrival of the chickens nearly a year ago, our neighbors are catching the fever. One neighbor has also acquired chickens with a very posh chicken Taj Mahal. Their next door neighbor is in the process of building a coop as well and will be adopting some of the chicks we just hatched last month. This is the second batch-not as successful as the first (and not as much of a novelty)-he started out with 9 and one fell into the water bowl and drowned and the other simply got sick and died. Ah well..these are the hardships of owning poultry where their brains are the size of a pea.
So, our other neighbor who doe not own chickens, made a bold move to own goats. he has alot of grasses along the water edge he would like to have the goats eat. I am not one to argue the fine points of goat ownership since my understanding in what I see on a petting farm, but we are on a roll here in the 'dena. Farm animals rule.
Okay, Dave the goat owner has a very nice little fenced pen for Cocoa and Cream (the pygmy goats). However, within 24 hours, someone reported him and the animal control told him he needed to build them a nice shelter, with a roof and such. Shag carpeting? Big screen TV? Maybe some air conditioning? So, he is working on that. In the meantime, goats like to eat hay when it is above their heads (not on the ground). I really don't know why, but it is what they do. Dave went to a feed store and purchased a hay container which hung above the heads of the goats. This is the upsetting part of my story so fair warning..apparently Cream got her horns caught in the hay container and well, met the goat gods in heaven. Very sad for the family in the short time they knew her and apparently very distressful for Cocoa, Cream's life partner. The poor thing was visibly shaken (although I am not sure how you can tell). Dave, being the animal lover he was, made a decision to get another goat that evening to help Coca get over her loss.
Dave comes home with another goat..this one is a lactating goat. This makes Alan very happy..he is a big fan of goat's milk. The following morning Bill, who was up at 6 AM, here's a goat in distress.huge bleeping noises and goat yelling. He looks out his window and there is Cocoa screeching down Diana Drive. Being the good neighbor that he is, he goes after it. Cocoa has run away from home and ran to the chicken owners house for salvation. Dave is alerted-they go over to get Cocoa..she is gone again. Now there is a goat search party that has been formed. They combed neighbor's yards calling for Cocoa...which brings me to this point. How does one call for a goat? Bill asked neighbors if they had seen a goat...which was met with great confusion and many questions.
After a solid hour of searching Cocoa was found in Ken and Pat's yard (where she had been all along) next to the chickens under a table.
From what I can gather once she was returned, there is a battle going on with the new goat and Cocoa as to who was going to be the alpha. An argument ensued and Cocoa left home, apparently she lost the battle.
Meanwhile, Alan has been reporting to Dave's on a regular basis to milk the goat. God help us all....