Cookie Monsters

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that we tend to keep a lot of horse treats on hand. We’re not usually brand or flavor specific, just whatever we happen to pick up at the feed or tack store. I like to keep Mrs. Pasture’s around just because they don’t tend to crumble in my pockets.

Jason and I were in the barn last week and for some reason I gave the Mrs. Pastures cookies that I had in my pocket to Mina and Jo, World’s Cutest Fainting Goats. They went nuts! Judging by their response Mrs. Pastures cookies were the most wonderful, delectable treat they had ever had.

Our goats are used to lots of treats. They get handfuls of horse feed, raisins, and bread (whole wheat, no preservatives – nothing but the best for our goats) as treats every day. For a few days we added Mrs. Pastures horse cookies into the daily treat line-up. For awhile their over the top ecstasy about Mrs. Pastures cookies was cute. Now if you get within 10 feet of where the treat jar is kept we’re mauled by fainting goats desperate for their next hit of Mrs. Pastures cookies.

I put my hand in my jacket pocket yesterday and Mina thought I was going to pull out a Mrs. Pastures cookie. She butted Jo hard, who promptly fainted, because if any fainting goat was going to have a Mrs. Pastures cookie it was going to be her. All I was doing was putting my hand in my pocket, not pulling out a treat, so poor Jo was butted and then fainted over nothing.

When Jason and I watched them butting each other in the barn aisle this afternoon as we stood within about 5 feet of where the Mrs. Pastures cookie jar lived we declared a moratorium on Mrs. Pastures cookies for goats. They can’t handle it! Hopefully after a few days of no cookies they will be well on the road to recovery and detox and we’ll have no more drama over Mrs. Pastures cookies, or the possibility of cookies. Geesh.

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We’re getting our first taste of winter weather this week so between yesterday evening and today everyone got their blankets on and will have them on for a couple of days. We actually had a few minutes of snow flurries today, of course it was also almost 40 degrees at the time. Go figure. I made the mistake of commenting on the snow flurries while it was above freezing to Jason. Jason is obsessed with weather and launched into a lecture about atmospheric temperature and blah, blah, blah. I just kind of tuned it out so he sounded like the teacher in the Peanuts/Snoopy specials – wah, wah, wah.

To be fair I have no doubt Jason will be tuning me out the next few days as I grumble about the weather. Thankfully we should be back to 50 degrees by Thursday. March can’t come soon enough for me.

The Big Boys are their usual active selves. Here’s a short clip of some of them coming on the run.

Hemi

Baby and Tony

Grand and Trigger

Ogie and Darby

Chili rolling during our 10 minutes of snow flurries

One of my favorite pictures I’ve taken recently but you need to know the context to appreciate why. Storm is the pawer/squealer and Rocky is the one instigating the whole thing. Storm’s signature response to initial contact is to squeal and paw. Rocky picked up on this pattern quickly and now he goes up to Storm several times a day and nuzzles him and predictably, the first thing Storm does is to squeal and paw. I’m not sure who gets a bigger kick out of it, Rocky or Storm. Rocky loves the result (it’s like he’s putting another quarter in the video game machine) and Storm loves his signature squeal and paw move.