Day 339: Several years ago, I was told by a Fair employee that sheep were only brought in at the end of the Fair's run due to the possibility of disease being cross-communicated to cattle. In my years of raising sheep, I had never heard of any such thing, but I figured Fair officials knew what they were talking about. Consequently, I nearly always missed the sheep exhibit. Oddly, this year the restriction seemed not to apply. Sheep were scheduled for mid-month, and to my delight, the show overlapped one of my duty days. Again to my surprise, goats were housed in the same barn concurrently. Apparently the Fair no longer separates the sheep from the goats!
I've often thought about getting a goat. When I moved here thirty years ago, I brought two sheep with me, only to learn a hard lesson when they were attacked by neighbourhood dogs. A sheep is a docile animal, a goat not so much so. Unless taken down while in a small enclosure, a goat can stand its own against a dog or coyote. But sheep are grazers, good for keeping your lawn mowed. Goats are browsers, and will eat almost anything from knee-level up as high as they can reach, standing on their back legs to to do. I don't have a lot of brush, and wouldn't want them devouring my ornamentals. In any event, I feel that staking a goat on a tether is unkind to the critter. A little Angora is tempting, though.
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