Goats are not food!

Kevin and Blankie

  I have recently started collecting goats.  I got my first goat about a year ago and he is a black and silver pygmy mix.  He was pretty nasty when i found him living on a rope alone among tall grass and chickens.  He was so pathetic, i couldnt leave without taking him.  His name is Eric but we fondly refer to him as "Goat-Goat" or "Bubba".  He used to be allowed full run of the 8 acres that we live on out here but that has since changed.  About three months later, I adopted two Nubian bucklings to be friends to keep Bubba company.  They were about three and four months old and hadnt had much human interaction either so chasing them down was a daily battle and we opted to build a fenced area and added another apple box for housing.
  Our house is covered with ornamental plants and trees and daily I let the goats out of their pen to run free and sample whatever they wanted.  One afternoon, I found the baby goats out in the back field bahhing so hard and throwing up violently.  After bringing them to a safe area in the shed so contain them, I went to figure out what had poisoned them.  Rhododendron plants are deadly to goats and most animals and our place is covered in them.  Huge trees no less!  There was not a very good outlook for the babies' health and it was devastating after a week of fighting to lose one of the babies to the poisoning. The remaining baby cried for weeks looking for his brother and it was a terrible feeling knowing that my ignorance had been the cause.   to be continued