The end of the Goat Era

I'm sad to announce that Sven our Lamancha goat died last evening. There are a million questions I am asking myself as to the how and why, but he'll never tell me now.

I helped Sven come into this world on February 16th 2019. His mom was having difficulty and stalled out during his birth. Luckily, I was able to save Sven and the mother passed away 24 hours later. He was bottle raised in the house and was given to me.

Here I bottle fed him on the porch and Charlie assited:

We had a wild ride and tons of fun. During his life here he caused us great laughter, great concern, and shakes of the fist and head. He was a dork, a pain in the butt, and very loving. After all, he was a goat.

He was pals with Charlie even though he was the size of a mini horse. He adored our pony Lil' Richard and could not stand to be out of his sight unless it was 20 below zero outside. Sven was a master at cleaning up weeds when he was in the mind to do so. Otherwise while staked out he'd simply voice his displeasure and walk in circles. 

Sven was terrified of anything that was a vehicle. He'd run to the end of his rope and flip himself, so generally I'd never put him near the driveway if I was expecting a package to be delivered.

He was a funny goat and a few times I've had people want to walk into his pen and pet him. I'd go in with them and quickly learned that Sven did not like other humans near HIS mom. He'd literally walk up and push them away from me. I guess since I delivered him and bottle fed him, he figured I was his mom.

I'll miss his goaty goat voice in the morning as he tells me it is time to put him out on a line to graze or feed him hay.

But farm life is all about life, love, tenderness, frustration, and death. It happens. I'm going to miss him but I won't replace him! He would have been helpful in cleaning up my flower gardens this fall though.

Good Boy Sven, you crazy wacky Goat!

We were the best of friends and some days the best of frenemies.