We have a 6 month old boer goat Fern that is chocolate brown(hard to see at night time!). Anyway, we had a huge snowstorm in mid-Missouri and it had subsided so we let the goat out and our other milk goat and her babies out to play for the day and get some exercise.
We went to town (for feed) for like an hour maybe 2 but not long. Came home, went to put up the feed and put up the animals, we could not find Fern anywhere, we bawled like a goat and waited to hear anything, i did but it sounded like the babies not fern. ANYWAY, the search was on. We have drifts up to my crotch(i am 5'3"). Not to mention the blowing wind would cover your tracks in about 20 minutes so any hope of following goat tracks was in vane. Anyway, my sickest thought was that she was burried in a big snow drift, but for the life of me could not figure out why she would have ventured out, on her own, into the cold and out of the warm barn.
the search was on, we looked in the dog pens, in the dogloos lying around here and there, any box, nook and cranny we could think of, in the boat, under the boat, on the hill with the cows, stepped into the snow drifts to see if we felt anything under the tractor, under the cattle trailer, under the car, in the watertanks(omg that was hard to look in there to see if she drown) NO FERN.
We were getting frostbit, weather chanel said 20 minutes in the weather and you could be frostbit on the extremities. This worried me more knowing she was out there somewhere. Panic was setting in. I came in the house to warm up and get the million power spotlight to see if I could search for her and see eyes shining back at me ....nothing. URGH.
I gave up and figured she was in a nice cozy warm place and happy. My DH decided he would go for a stroll and look for her. He came back 10 minutes later and said he found her....IN THE CHICKEN FEED BARREL!!! the big 55 gallon feed barrel (the lid does not fit perfect on it) evidently this little goon jumped on a smaller feed barrel and then on another big one and stepped on the last one and the lid flipped her into the feed barrel. She was fat and happy. Full and laying down, not worried about the wind or anything. She was toasty warm and liked it there! I would have looked in that barrell but the lid was not upside down. I did bang on the dern thing to shut the lid better. I had poured the goat feed in the other barrel and thought I had knocked it off on the one fern was in. DD said she noticed it was upside down and turned it over but never saw Fern. remember she is brown dark brown. the barn is dark too!
I was so worried but glad she was found. Now we just have to watch her for bloating or anything bad like that. Silly goat, guess we need to lock the barrels away from EVERYTHING.
We went to town (for feed) for like an hour maybe 2 but not long. Came home, went to put up the feed and put up the animals, we could not find Fern anywhere, we bawled like a goat and waited to hear anything, i did but it sounded like the babies not fern. ANYWAY, the search was on. We have drifts up to my crotch(i am 5'3"). Not to mention the blowing wind would cover your tracks in about 20 minutes so any hope of following goat tracks was in vane. Anyway, my sickest thought was that she was burried in a big snow drift, but for the life of me could not figure out why she would have ventured out, on her own, into the cold and out of the warm barn.
the search was on, we looked in the dog pens, in the dogloos lying around here and there, any box, nook and cranny we could think of, in the boat, under the boat, on the hill with the cows, stepped into the snow drifts to see if we felt anything under the tractor, under the cattle trailer, under the car, in the watertanks(omg that was hard to look in there to see if she drown) NO FERN.
We were getting frostbit, weather chanel said 20 minutes in the weather and you could be frostbit on the extremities. This worried me more knowing she was out there somewhere. Panic was setting in. I came in the house to warm up and get the million power spotlight to see if I could search for her and see eyes shining back at me ....nothing. URGH.
I gave up and figured she was in a nice cozy warm place and happy. My DH decided he would go for a stroll and look for her. He came back 10 minutes later and said he found her....IN THE CHICKEN FEED BARREL!!! the big 55 gallon feed barrel (the lid does not fit perfect on it) evidently this little goon jumped on a smaller feed barrel and then on another big one and stepped on the last one and the lid flipped her into the feed barrel. She was fat and happy. Full and laying down, not worried about the wind or anything. She was toasty warm and liked it there! I would have looked in that barrell but the lid was not upside down. I did bang on the dern thing to shut the lid better. I had poured the goat feed in the other barrel and thought I had knocked it off on the one fern was in. DD said she noticed it was upside down and turned it over but never saw Fern. remember she is brown dark brown. the barn is dark too!
I was so worried but glad she was found. Now we just have to watch her for bloating or anything bad like that. Silly goat, guess we need to lock the barrels away from EVERYTHING.
