My Buddy, Buddy

This photo of Buddy was taken in 2012 when I was back in Washington.

Buddy is currently tethered down the hill so he can eat different grass down there and help with the upkeep of the property, something goats do well. When I came out to take him his carrot, he wasn't in his pen. I didn't know if he had gone on the lam again, so I called his name and he started nattering from downhill. I walked down that way until I saw where he was tethered. He sounded a little frantic when I called out to him, so I walked down to him and found that he'd gotten himself tangled, much the way a dog does. I untied and untangled him then tied him back again. On the way down the hill, I found some great bunches of fresh dandelion leaves that are out of chicken roaming range I suspect. I'm disinclined to harvest any out there for my smoothies when they're in range of the chicken walkabouts out there. Chicken poop is NOT one of the ingredients for my green smoothies. Ick! Anyway, I gathered a bunch of tender ones for him and took those with me to go with his carrot. He seemed happy to see me. Particularly when I untangled him. Silly ol' goat (spoken affectionately the way Christopher Robin called Winnie the Pooh a "silly ol' bear"). 

I loved Buddy so much. Buddy was my name for him. The owners didn’t give him a name because they had lost several of their farm animals—two to coyotes and two to poisonous plants. They felt that it hurt more when you lost them, if you named them. I understand the reasoning, but I took food scraps from my smoothie-making activities out to him every day so it seemed fitting that he should have a name. Everybody needs a name so that when they hear you say it, they know that you know them. Anyway, I started calling him Buddy, and my Buddy he will always be. I got to spend only 5 months of my life with him, just a smallish slice of my life, but he will always be part of my story because of our daily interactions during those five months. 

I loved him so much because of his brave spirit in the face of loss. Shortly after two goats showed up together (a brother and sister), the sister ate some noxious weed and died, just as one of the llamas (Autumn) had done. So almost immediately after being uprooted and brought to a new home, the sister died and the brother remained in an open pen with a whole bunch of chickens. Being the empathic animal lover I am, my heart went out to the surviving goat instantly. I hated that so much change and loss had occurred so abruptly in his life, so I took him under my wing so to speak. Though actually it was the hens in the pen who ultimately took him under their wings since they had them, and I don’t a single wing anywhere on my body. As much as I long to soar with the eagles, I am perfectly content to traverse through this life completely wingless. Now a spare pair of strong legs I could use. But I digress. Ahem.

I loved Buddy so much that he now appears in a novel I am in the middle of writing. Yup. He became a character in Silent Snow, appearing eventually in a bookshop near you. I will give you plenty of warning when I finish it. I will finish it. I just have to get some dedicated time for writing. I will get that at some point. I always do. I just need my life to fall into a gentle rhythm where there is peace and a space in my head where creativity has enough energy to work and play. I personally don’t do well physically or emotionally when I don’t have space and time to breathe a fresh breath of creativity.