This is my tribute to a very special goat that came into my life in January 2000. Her story begins with a visit to the Herington livestock sale barn in November 1999. When we bought this farm, I wanted a couple of milk goats for my own use. At the sale barn we met a Nubian Goat Producer that had come to look at goats. We got to talking and told her that we were looking for a Milk goat. Since all her goats were registered and pregnant at the time, she had none available, but would stay on the lookout for one for me.
Early January, 2000, Denise called and said she had located a little doe goat for us that another goat producer had for sale. She gave me the lady's number, (I no longer remember her name) and arrangements were made to go look at this little gal. "Rusty" was stashed in the back of a horse trailer. The lady said she was a little on the wild side-which turned out to be an understatement. Even in the horse trailer, the goat proved to be a handful to catch. We finally caught her, put a collar on her and paid $45.00 for her. She wasn't big-only a few months old; but off we went and brought her home.
I had built a small pen in the old hog barn that was to house many goats and bottle babies over the next few years. Other pens were added as I needed them. Along the way shortly after we got her, Rusy got out of the fence around the barn. Could have used a horse to try and catch her. I haven't done critter chasing and catching since I was in high school many years ago. Now if you can picture me running down a gravel road with this little red goat running in front of me, then you can have a really good laugh. I finally got a rope and we herded her into a big old hay barn. I was getting about ready to go get the .22 rifle to end that nonsense. We finally managed to corner that idiot goat, put a rope in her collar and haul her butt back to the other barn where she was to begin with.
I tied her in the stall and left her there while I could go catch my breath. Then I thought to myself, what ever possessed me to buy such a hare-brained goat?? Eventually she settled down with my spending much time out there, but I didn't let her out until I was sure she could not get out of the fences I had built on the East end of the hog barn, even after we bought a Saanen milk goat from another producer. In April 2000, I recieved a call from Denise again asking if I would be interested in taking/buying this little Nubian buckling she had and no longer wanted to bottle feed him. Off I went to get this little guy. He was the most beautiful dark chocolate brown with frosted ears I have ever seen. He was named "Frosty" because of his ears.
Frosty turned into quite the Nubian Buck--Except that my husband put him in with the girls when he was only a few months old and Rusty was in heat. Now mind you, here is this 100 pound red doe with long legs, massive rump, and hind quarters that made her look like a "Buck" being chased all over the paddock by this little chocolate brown buck. To make a long story short, sometime during the chase, Frosty caught Rusty--even though we didn't know it at the time. I eventually pulled him out and put him over in the big barn. This was late August/early September.
Having not been around goats in over 20 year and going to college full time, I didn't pay that much attention to the girls until the morning of January 20, 2001 when I went out to feed before heading out to classes at K-State. Here on the ground were these two beautiful red kids-just like their mother--both dead, frozen to death in the 20 degree weather in the barn. A lot of harsh words were exchanged over that. Those kids never should have been born in that kind of weather, and I never had red kids from Rusty again. Over the next two years, she gave me a set of Black and Wite Paint does, a set of buck triplets that were born 3 weeks early and died, plus a set of triplets-2 bucks and a doe-that perished with her in the barn fire of February 16th, 2004.
Even though she started out as a "wild-child", Rusty became a real charmer, coming over to rub her head against your leg or hip, and even sometimes almost knocking me down. It didn't matter how many goats we had, Rusty was always there in the front, and never took any gruff from any of the other goats. Her milk/colostrums saved many a baby goat's lives over the years, as well as providing milk and cream for cheese and butter used here. I have only had one other goat like Rusty, and I sometimes wonder if maybe she was "Esther" re-incarnate come to say good-by in her own special way that fateful night.