When stopping at our mail box on Loudon Road not long ago, I was surprised to find  a young goat standing a few feet away just on the other side of the fence. He frantically tried to get to me. I sensed a friendly attitude.

This behavior, for those of you with limited goat experience, is highly unusual. Normally goats run when they see a stranger, especially one not bearing food. This little fellow, on the other hand did everything he could to gain attention including standing up with front hooves resting on the fence, protruding his head through the wire, and wanting his ears scratched.

What was going on here! I saw no other goats in the pasture. I looked particularly for a nanny goat but saw none. This lone goat proved an enigma to me. The plot thickened each time I picked up our mail. Every time i stopped, there was the lone, not fully grown goat. I wondered if he might just be an orphan.

For over a month the scuttlebutt among the denizens of Blue Jay Way largely consisted of theories dealing with the origin and behavior of the little Boer goat. In response to his entreaties, we began to feed the demanding goat. Whereas I routinely carry a sack of horse feed in the back of my pickup truck, I removed some and offer the feed. As if famished, the goat ate hungrily from my hands or feed scoop. He much preferred eating from my hands or from the scoop rather than eating it off the ground. This struck me as strange goat behavior indeed. What gives?

The four families who have their mailboxes clustered together at the end of Blue Jay Way began to speculate about why the goat acted as he did. Before revealing what the outcome, take a moment to speculate by completing the poll below. We’ll see if this works.

Tagged: unusual goat behavior