Trina Goat

Let me start this post with a lengthy background story since it will allow me to share some other things I'd intended to write about before now...

Embree was premature, and on top of that, she had some placenta issues that caused her to be a teeny tiny baby. Born only three weeks early, Embree weighed four and a half pounds. She had to stay in NICU for 6 of the most emotional days of my life. Our NICU nurses were amazing, and we are forever grateful for them taking extra special care of our tiny, precious gift from above.


Last October, we were invited to the NICU reunion! It was not what we expected... it was much, much better!! At the reunion, they had a petting zoo, and in that petting zoo, they had many goats. They also had roosters and donkeys and lots of other animals, but most importantly (to Embree at least), they had GOATS! For the longest time after the reunion, Embree would talk to us about the goats. Her eyes would light up as she described how the rooster sat on the goat's back. Certainly, it was very cute, but what made it noteworthy was that it was the first time Em reflected on something, loved it, and recounted it to us. The first evidence of what I've come to believe is a remarkable memory.


On a side note, I must profess that our backyard is a mess. We have weeds, random dinky trees, and lots and lots of poison ivy! We had to discover that last one the hard way:( We've cleared it out (and by "we", I mean "J.Brandon and his friends") many times, but it always grows back because we aren't quite ready to landscape it yet. Well, actually, we were ready - and we started to work on it... but that is when we battled the poison ivy (this time I do mean "we"), and were forced to admit defeat or explore other options. The steroid cream worked for us, but obviously that does not work on the plant itself. Burning it would just be a hot mess, and spraying the poison ivy was all fun and games until we pumped and sprayed till our hands quit working, re-read the instructions, and found that the kill-time was at least 6 weeks. Then we would have to re-spray. Obviously, we needed a new strategy. Couple that with how much our baby girl loves her some goats, and we found a winner!! Take that, Poison Ivy!! Our deed restrictions say no livestock, but we found a loophole:) A PYGMY goat is actually considered a domestic animal! Apparently, they can even be housebroken! Who knew?!


Our family always had pygmy goats growing up (along with a random assortment of animals that included a buffalo, goose, Peace (the cow I got for Xmas my sophomore year of high school), raccoons, ducks, Beau... the list goes on), so I was excited at the prospect of getting Embree a little goat of her own. Especially if said goat would eat up our weeds, brush and poison ivy! For Embree's 2nd birthday, January 12th, we presented our little toddler with the cutest 11 month old pygmy nanny goat for only $30 plus the cost of hay and feed. Worth every penny! Her GrandPa (thank you, Dad!!) brought over a shed and pen that he had whipped together the night before, put a heat lamp in it, and whalaa!... we became country bumpkins!


In summary, yes... we have a goat!! We named her Trina for reasons I can't share here. She's adorable and although shy at first, fits right in our strange little family. Maverick and Trina are spending their days together outdoors. Maverick still prefers to stay on our back porch, as close to the back door as physically possible, with high hopes that I will change my stance on dog hair blanketing our indoor furnishings and clothing (not happening, buddy). Trina weed-eats most of the day (yay!!), but she can also be found resting on our back porch with Maverick, often using the slide to scratch her back.


Sounds kinda nice, huh?! Well, it is... almost always... except... well... except for this one day...

A few weeks ago, our household woke up to no power. It was extremely cold outside, and for whatever reasons, Texas suffered rolling blackouts. Our neighborhood's blackout, however, was not "rolling". It lasted from 7:15am to 7:30pm. That's a long time to go without power when you don't even camp without a generator. I went into survival mode;) J.Brandon had just undergone foot surgery and was unable to walk. Princess Embree had a cold, and Trina's heat lamp was plugged into a now powerless outlet. Translation: Trina was a very cold goat! At 10am, I did what I thought any decent person would do. I put our perishable foods on the porch and brought our goat in the house. That's right. I bundled up, braved the cold, and after finding the latch to Trina's pen frozen shut, I picked that goat up, climbed us over the fence, and carried Trina into the laundry room where she spent the rest of her day. All was well and right again! Especially if you could ignore the whining frenzied dogs harrassing the laundry room door. At this point, we conceded that our goat is somehow less maintenance and much easier to have around than either of our dogs (Especially Rage. He can be super annoying). Plus, Trina works part time weed-eating the yard to earn her keep! The dogs better step their game up, or they will quickly be replaced!


The highlight of this day came when I enlisted my partner in crime, Em, to hold a flashlight steady so that I could sweep up the layer of goat poop that was blocking the path that led to my car and any possible escape to a world with electricity. Also, I needed to take Em to the doctor as I became increasingly concerned about the green stuff leaking from her nose. Bonus - the doctor's office had power!


Later that night, I reluctantly took Trina back to her shed that was, once again, glowing from the warmth of her heat lamp. I swept up all of the goat poop that hadn't rolled under the washing machine or dryer and out of my reach. I then resigned myself to a lower than dirtball status when I decided I would have to search for the nomadic goat poo another day because I. Was. Beat. As I drifted off to sleep, my last thoughts were that I must be a trashy hillbilly because I actually missed having my goat in the house. She's a special little lady. I also wondered how long it would be until I was able to laugh at this miserable day. Turns out, not very long!


Trina's cautious, but rightfully so. Em intentionally scares the poor goat by chasing her around the yard, and Mav growls at her if she gets between him and Embree. I hope Trina understands that Em is just playing, but also that Maverick means business. I love having a goat in the backyard! She lets me brush her, pet her, feed her out of my hand, and she'll even follow me around if the rugrat's calm. She's good company for Maverick, and she's cheap entertainment for our family. What's not to love?! Last night when I opened the back door to let Mav in for dinner, Trina made a careful attempt to come inside as well. I almost let her. Yep, Trina Goat is a big hit around here, even if she did poop on every square inch of my laundry room.