Goats are here!

Goats arrived at our farm! After so much work getting the property ready, our new goats arrived in style from Bedford, PA. We are friends with the folks who raised them, so we really got some sweet, well cared for animals. We got four total, two are offspring of the other two.

I’ve cared for goats as a zookeeper, but having them at home is a different animal, so to speak. I have a lot of confidence in our fencing (the most important part of housing goats…) I was worried about introducing our three hound mixes to the goats (through the fence). The dogs have varying degrees of prey drive, ranging from “what is everyone excited about?” to “gotta get it, gotta get it”.

I have been involved in many, many animal introductions as a zookeeper. From very small songbirds to lions and tigers, each one is planned out and executed with great care. I tried not to overthink the goat-dog intros. All in all, almost two weeks later, the dogs are still very curious about the goats. I think time and oversaturation of exposure to each other will eventually get us all living in (relative) harmony.