Yesterday morning, I was on my computer in the office when I heard my fiance call from the bedroom, “There’s a goat out back”! I got up, went to the window and sure enough, a little black goat was making its way down the hill behind our house. He jumped into our fenced in back yard, but we were worried he could get out and get hit by a car, even though we live in a residential neighborhood, so Gretchen went out back to rescue the goat. I followed shortly after.

The goat liked Gretchen. All animals do. The goat was very friendly and so cute. It was tiny too. He (it was a male) let Gretchen pet him before deciding he liked our big HVAC unit and jumped up on top of it so he could be king of his own mountain. He stayed up there for awhile. Meanwhile, we were trying to figure out where the hell he had come from. We live in a city, for Pete’s sake! Well, we didn’t know what to do with him, so I called Animal Control to come get him. Turns out they had one officer working the entire city, so we had to camp out with the goat for nearly two hours before they came to pick him up. Gretchen went and got him some water. He really, really loved our rose bush leaves and ate heartily. Because we didn’t want him jumping the fence and wandering down to the street, we got a rope and lassoed him, trying him to our neighbor’s fence while he munched on the grass. We wanted to keep him. He was adorable. But Animal Control eventually arrived and took him down to their truck, where they put him in a tiny compartment. I felt bad for him. I felt like we were betraying him. It was sad to see him go.

Today we’ve talked about the goat and how we should adopt him, but that’s not a realistic option. We don’t have a very big back yard, the neighbors might not like it, and the city probably wouldn’t like it either. Plus we probably couldn’t afford it. Pity. I decided the (male) goat looked like an “Abigail,” so we named him Abigail. We’ve been watching football today and I’m still watching football, but Gretchen just left to go down to the animal shelter to visit Abigail. He followed her around the yard yesterday. I certainly hope he’s OK and is being treated well. Animal Control said this is the second goat they’ve gotten in the city recently, and they also said they got a monkey out of someone’s yard. That’s bizarre. Following are some pics of Abigail the goat. Enjoy.

Abigail on the HVAC unit