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Luangwa River

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Thursday, June 16, 2005

the goat diary

Billy goat Bob was named by my grandson in honour of his favourite , Bob The Builder, and is now perhaps 6 months old. He was bottle fed and so is very confident with people , actually pushy is more like it,as he does like to push people around with his head, doesnt actually use his horns yet as he probably doesnt know he has them. He also pushes his way into any partly open door or fence gap, places the geese have never got through he goes, and if he cant get through a fence he climbs it or jumps. He is now getting over 4ft fences where its solid enough to give him a good purchase while he hauls the rest of him after his head and shoulders. His diet is eccentric , he likes last years' leaves, this years newspapers and flyers, apple. dogwood, and elm tree leaves , spruce tree bark, chicken feed( layers mash ) deadly nightshade and carrots. He prefers banana peel to the fruit, which he leaves for his buddy the pig to eat, and quite likes onion skin and seeding grass. He really likes commercial goat ration, sweetened with molasses is the key there I think.
Last weekend he climbed the fence of his paddock, went through or over the electric fence into the field next door and joined my neighbour Henry's cows. They , well Henry, brought him back and tied him carefully to the ash tree on the lawn with water in an old pot nearby. By the time I got back here he had wound his tether around the tree and his own legs to the point of being completely immobilised. So next time I leave him alone he will be secure in his shed.

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