“What’s her name?”
“Sneezy,” Sean sighed. “My daughter’s a huge Disney fan, so when she was born she decided to name her after one of the Seven Dwarves seeing as how she was a pygmy goat. It was like a frigging omen because the second she had her name, the thing started sneezing.”
“Just as well she didn’t call it Grumpy,” Ariana teased, thinking it was funny.
“Got one of those as well. Bad bastard bites me every time he sees me. Evil little shit,” he muttered.
Opening the gate, he waved her in, and she sank to her knees in the thankfully clean straw. Unlike Gaynor—who I think was asleep in my arms—Sneezy’s tail went insane when Ariana scratched her with her nails.
“Wait for it,” Sean warned.
And just then, the sneezing started, the first one landing right on Ari’s chin.
Wiping it off, she picked her up and cuddled her. “Is she allergic to something?”
“Nope, doc says it’s one of those things where the excitement makes it happen. Some of them piss, some of them shit, some of them sing ballads from the seventies,” he looked at Gaynor. “This one sneezes.”
“Happens with humans, too,” I pointed out, and it was true. There was a syndrome where some people started coughing or sneezing when they got stressed or anxious, some even did it when they were happy. There were a lot of triggers, and it was dependent on the person itself. Some people even fainted, which made me think of something about the goat in my arms. “What makes Gaynor faint?”
“Fainting goats have a condition called myotonia congenita, which makes them stiffen and fall over if they get a fright. Not all of them do it, mind you, but a lot of them do,” he explained. “Loud noises, someone jumping out at them, if they get a fright, they just stiffen up and fall over with their legs rigid.”
“Would you be willing to let me buy them from you?” Ariana asked, angling her face away from the goat tongue trying to get to it. “I promise I can give them a good home. I just need to speak to our friend who’s an animal behavioralist to see what’s the best way to introduce them to my Dachshunds and the cat.”
Pointing over at three hounds who were watching us while they lounged on overstuffed cushions in the corners, he replied, “They’ve grown up with dogs. Those three are the guardians. They love the babies and the animals and refuse to leave them at night. There have been multiple occasions when one of the animals has been ill or in distress in the middle of the night, and one of them has come out baying at the top of its lungs to wake us up.”
“Cool,” Ari breathed, no doubt imagining her two doing the same thing.
“Depends on the breed and their upbringing,” he shrugged.
“I got mine at the same time my sister-in-law brought her chickens and squirrel to live at my brother’s house. Every time they get a lick of freedom, they run to the coops to crawl in with the chickens and snuggle up with them in their nests.”
See, her dogs were filthy! Chickens shit in their beds, it’s a fact.
“I’ve got an idea, speak to your friend, and maybe bring the dogs here to meet them first, see how they get along. If it’s all ok, we can get one of those fences that keeps kids from getting out and put it around one section of the living room so that they’re still separate, but they can all get used to each other. If that goes well, we’ll slowly to mix them together. How does that sound?” I suggested, literally winging it by the seat of my pants.
“Baller,” Sean snickered, nodding his head. “Bring the behavioralist with you when the pups meet the kids so that she can read what the dogs are saying about it all. Our dogs are born with the goats around them all the time and learn from their parents how to interact with them, but there’s still the odd one here and there who struggles and ends up being rehomed. It happens.”
Chewing on her lip, Ari glanced from Gaynor to Sneezy, looking torn over leaving them.
“I’ll bring you back to see them whenever you want,” I promised, but it wasn’t just for her. I kind of liked the little one who was snoring on my chest right now and wouldn’t mind seeing her again. She could also just drive herself here to see Gaynor and Sneezy, so me offering was almost a test to see if she’d spend that time with me.
And with that, she stood up and held a hand out to Sean, ignoring the tail waggling and sneezing kid in her other arm. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Moving away from them, I moved toward the other pens and peeked over the fence. I hadn’t ever realized baby goats were as cute as they were, but serious as shit, they were adorable. There was a small pig in the next pen with tiny little piglets fast asleep next to her stomach, totally milk wasted. Grinning, I moved to the next one, seeing a goat glaring at me from on top of a metal bucket.