Mine!
March 20th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in farming
The boy goat–Tigger–wants to be king of the hill and lord over our sheep. I drop a bale of hay in the paddock, Tigger jumps right on top and dares the sheep to try and eat. If the sheep do draw close, he puts his head down and shoos them away. The sheep are left to pick over yesterday’s leavings until Tigger drops the act and the animals all cluster together to feed on the new bale.
Tigger has claimed the highest corner of the walk-in shelter for his nest, a place where he can play king of all the livestock. This is where he retreats to chew his cud and sleep at night. And to survey his domain, I guess. Whenever he wants the sheep to move out his way, he just lowers his head and they oblige. Even the yearling ram–Buddy–puts up no real resistance. What a wuss.
Tigger has a special place for our cow, Emily, however. He’s very much attached to her, I think because while the boy goat was confined to a pen in the shelter for many weeks Emily used to spend time with him, just hanging around outside the pen for long periods. From a distance, you could see they were sweet on each other. Tigger would climb the metal gate with his front hooves to nuzzle her. She nuzzled back.
But as you can see in the photo, Tigger will try to protect his hay bale even from his friend Emily. I think their head-butting is more for show. Emily takes no guff off Tigger. If she really wants some hay, she’ll just go ahead and take it. Otherwise, Tigger follows her around like a lost puppy. The sheep just watch with a blank look on their faces. All they want is some grain.
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