Wow, this has been a great thread! How lucky for the goats that they found you. They look wonderful. You and your family has done a great job!
Angora Goats From Rescue
Angora's are fairly common out here, not too hard to come by.
For those of you hankering for one of these little cuties---
If you check with the spinning and weaving community, I'll bet they can put you on to a breeder that has goats with high quality fleece. Spend a little time learning about what makes a good fleece for spinning... diameter, length, ????
And I 'spect they're like sheep, for good spinning fleeces they are kept blanketed to keep stuff out of it. Or at least around here they are. Lots of dead brown things, hay, etc to decrease quality/desirablity of fleece.
I keep thinking about getting a couple three of these guys, they're so cute and I like goats. But the upkeep has made me pause...
I have short-haired dogs now 'cause I already don't have enough time to groom things! LOL
Found some sites http://www.bobsmoleys.com/s-z.html
http://www.cagba.org/ http://www.hillshepherd.com/goats.html
I wonder if I could pass one off as a poodle?????
Until it barks! LOL
The nutty people around here probable would not tell the different, of course the horns might be hard to explain. LOL
Goat-a-poo.
Well the poo would be good for the garden.LOL
Their poo is EXCELLENT for the garden. It is very garden ready because, unlike chicken manure, it is not high nitrogen so no need to compost it first. It comes in a readily available easy-to-spread pelleted form too!
I don't know if they have polled (hornless) angoras but that would definitely look like a poodle.
How neat that she was so sweet.... You have to wonder. She must have been loved or well cared for at some point? Maybe?
Poo-gora?
Anga-doodle?
Wang-dang-doodle-alla-day! LOL
Hmmmm, I wouldn't count on them being so sweet the next time you try to bath them. But thank heavens they were THIS time! =0)
I went in their pen today to check the young one that we bathed to make sure there were no new lice on her. I wanted to ensure that shampoo was working as it should be. I picked her up and sat her on my lap and she let me turn her every which way and pick through her fleece and generally let me do whatever I wanted. I could not believe how sweet she was. There was not a living louse to be found. I kissed her nose and put her back with her siblings. I sure hope that they are not so docile because they are ill. She was just as calm as could be.
It might be breeding a breed that has to be sheared would have to be calm and sweet.
Well, I am just purely jealous. The goats I had were wild and it was like NFL tryouts just trying to catch them. And being a horse person by birth and training, tackling something just really went against the grain. I could chase 'em, I could head 'em, I could stop 'em, but lunge and grab one? Every fiber of my being would tell me I was gonna get killed. LOL
And mine had lice too, so lots of exercise for all of us there for a while. Pick one up and the scream would split your eardrum. I nearly dropped the first one. [Confessions of a rank beginner]
Funny, now that I think of it, my white one was the most tame of the bunch... after about 3 years. =0)
Jay
Ha! The images I get Jay!
Wren,
Nice idea, but I think CM just got blessed by the Goddess of the Animals for rescuing the goatlings. The Navajos used to raise a lot of angoras, and they were not sweet lap goats.
Jenks,
Yeah, that instinct for self-preservation just really messed up my timing! I think I am probably one of the worst goat-tacklers around. LOL
Not to mention, the first time I tried to grab something running by I got clocked in the chin by a sheep. Following the EXCELLENT advice of a couple of EXPERIENCED sheep handlers (4H and sheep ranching)--Nah, they won't hurt you, just grab their head as they squeeze by--I got the smart sheep (do you have any idea how rare that is?) that decided to jump when I went for her... right into my chin. Do you know you really do hear bells if you get hit hard enough? Whoa. I just stood there shaking my head and wondering at the bells.
Then I started swearing at my 'coaches', the ewe, the stupid idea to shear these ()&*^%$ things... and had better luck grabbing the next ewe.
Sometimes ya just gotta let off a little steam...
Jay
Ah! New images!
SOL! (S is for snortin')
Jenks,
Think on this... though the ewes were big Suffolk ewes, they had no horns and they did have that fleece which we were going to shear off, so lots to grab.
Imagine the Core-of-my-Being when my brain said we were going to grab goats, smaller but with horns, fast and slick coated. My Clever Brain told the Core-of-my-Being "We are going to grab a leg."
I can't repeat here what the Core-of-my-Being said to that!
Next time around, no wild goats. I want lap goats like these!!!
I take it you haven't experienced this sport yet? =0)
Jay
Well, milking an unwilling goat comes to mind...First, wrap her gently around a post. Then gently hold a horn in one hand, a leg in one hand, and a teat gently in a third hand while attaching the kid she hasn't yet accepted and whispering calming words. At one point I resorted to cursing violently and vociferously in a calm and soothing voice. She wasn't entirely convinced of my good intentions...
Neooo....I've got a neighbor with goats and I catch the baby goats and return them when they get left.
Ah yes! The third hand! And such a civil tongue... ;-)
Goat milking... The very worst doe to catch we called 'Wind' (as in an evil...) she was jet black, golden eyed, and fast, fast, fast. The boss doe, the Queen, She-Who-Gets-Her-Way, who considered it pure effrontery on our part when we tried to catch her. She was happy to drag you belly down through the muck, after slamming you into a fence or two.
I milked her. Twice. Took two of us and it was a moving effort, but by all that is blessed I got milk for my cereal the next morning.
Next day I went to the store.
Jenks.... Goat Tackler in Training
May you always have a tight corner. LOL
Well this was milk or lose the kid, and I was alone. So she had a few sweet profanities whispered into her ear. She got a lotta love after until the next time I had to do it. lol.
Jenksy -you sneaky thing! Just caught you! Perhaps they think their own does are more reliable -lol!
This message was edited Dec 12, 2008 9:10 PM
I'm comeing in late here
Claire Thanks for the info I think i would rather do the visiting goat thing and just have females.
I had forgot about the billy goat perfume and i didn't think about the mounting thing.
Thats like rabbits if you leave a male with a female they will do that all day.
Boys - ya just can't get them to think of anything else! LOL!!!
Nothing if not thorough...
Poor dears are doing their part for the survival of the species.....
My does were shameless hussies when they were in heat. It was almost embarrassing to have my city friends--liberated, everyone of them--come over during those times.
Almost, but not quite. It was such fun watching their jaws drop as they saw the doe try and squeeze hersef through the horse fencing, and the buck pee on his face, wiggle his tongue, and bleat sweet nothings to her.
Draw this, Disney!
LOL Jay
Sounds like a pick-up line at the local bar!! lol!
Claire,
I didn't catch this one until there were over 130 posts, so there's no way I'm reading it all! I did see bath pictures! HOW CUTE! Is all I can say! Those goats are so lucky to have you... all your animals are.
Kristin
Yeah, Sue, it did remind me of the cowboy bars I sometimes had to go find my dad in... full of old goats with their tongues wagging. Only the smell of urine came from their boots, not their faces. Thank heavens.
LOL Jay
Disney would have had that billy singing something romantic after having had his face planted in spaghetti sauce or something. And the billy would have been the cowboy!!
Cowboys eat beans! ;o)
Or are you talking spaghetti westerns? lol
Thought afterwards -Five o' clock shadow an' a mess o' beans?! But Disney would NOT tell 'em what five o' clock was! lolol.
five o'clock? No sabe, gringo!
From can't see to can't see, them's the hours, tenderfoot. >>snort
Well, passing off billy's deco as not having shaved in a while may be a stretch, but so is Disney and goaty love...
Have you ever noticed that beards are associated with either daffy old prospectors or the bad guys?
So these would be baaaaaa-d old goats. lol
Siiigh....where are all the Good Ol' Goats....lol.
All the good goats are harried:0(
Why, the good goats are at Claire's! All bathed and spritzed and nice smelling. Mannerly, too. So far.
Can we tell I've been abused by goats...
I'm just a leetle sceptical about these tame lap goats...
I think they're up to something.