Goat Science

Owning a baby goat is a science. A BOTTLE-FED baby goat.

It seems like it should be easy. It is livestock. Any farmer can do it.

But we worry about little Radar.

Is he eating enough? Is he eating too much?

Is he acting lively enough?

Is he too lethargic?

Do we need to give him another baby goat enema. (yes, you read that correctly. Just keep on reading and try to forget.That's what I'm going to do.)

Maybe your first question, when you are finished laughing, is: Why did Rod and Diane get a goat? And I'm not gonna lie. There is a small part of me that is slightly embarrassed by the fact that we own a goat. That is probably why I usually refer to him a the "puppy-goat."

I guess I have a certain type of person in mind when I think of people who own goats. I need to get over my biases. So do you.

But you bring up an excellent question. Direct and to the point. Let me pull this strand of hay out of my mouth and hitch up my overalls and give you the short answer.

Because Rod wants to raise a "packgoat."

I went along with the plan as soon as I figured out it had nothing to do with a "packrat." We already have one of those, and his initials start with ROD. Just sayin'.

A packgoat, for those of you not up on your goat science, is a goat that carries or packs your things into or out of camp. Or on a backbacking/camping trip. Gosh, it sounds like a good time.

As I don't camp without an RV or a resort nearby, I say, "Have a merry,good time, Rod and fellow goatpackers. (I wonder if this is like that time he joined the Civil War Cavalry? He and his horse, Eli went to battle a few times before Eli became terrified of the cannon blasts and Rod figured out that those Cavalry guys take their play-acting pretty seriously. Shhhh....don't tell them the War is O.V.E.R.)

Anyway, our baby goat is adorable and follows Rod everywhere he goes. I did put my foot down when Rod picked him up last night and began to put him in our bed. He thought I was asleep.. I was not.

Here is the puppy-goat having morning devotional with Papa-Goat Rod.

He seems pretty intelligent,is not noisy and does not eat too much. Check back with me in a year or two.

I am completely fascinated by watching him. He has a beautiful pattern on his fur....hair? Beautiful eyes that seem to be able to communicate. A funny personality.

I can't help but wonder what God was thinking about as He created goats. Seriously.

Their little cloven hooves that help them balance on slippery rocks, their bleating cry, their horns.

It does just make me praise God for his creativity and his kindness in giving us people these marvelous gifts.

But as much as there is to study about Goat Science, and there is A LOT to learn, there is an endless amount to learn about our God.

I think about all the things He has made, and how we can study them and become, you know, Goat Masters, or Doctors of Goat Science, or of any of the other kajillion things He has created and I am humbled.

Now I am adding is a Charles Spurgeon quote here because it fits, and I don't want to hear any mocking about adding him onto a goat post. Just read it and shush.

He says,

"The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the attention of the child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, the existence of the great God...There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our tools are lost in its immensity; so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-contentment, and go our way with the thought, "Behold, I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle-eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, I am but of yesterday, and know nothing."

Yeah. What he said.