It's All About Martin

Who is Martin?  He was a member of our family for the first half of 2010.  Kaitlin was given a goat for Christmas.  It wasn't actually under the tree as it hadn't been born yet.  It was born shortly thereafter and she went and picked out the goat she wanted a month or so later and then in March we brought the baby goat home.  The first few days were pretty difficult as we tried to get Martin and Zoey together.  Martin would run away, break whatever ropes we had, pull the chain out of the ground, jump the small fence, etc.  We didn't know Zoey could jump over fences until we got Martin.  She jumped over his fence that first night.  We finally got everything under control and used a long chain to keep Martin chained to the trampoline but every so often we would have to go out and untangle him as he wandered around the yard.  We also had a pen for him, but he seemed to manage to get out quite frequently.  We did finally get that fixed too, but he did not like being in there and would cry to get out, especially at the unfairness that Zoey wasn't in there with him.

 We would take Martin across the street to the vacant, weedy lot and hang onto his chain and let him wander along with Zoey and the Moon's dog, Roxie.  I am pretty sure Martin thought he was a dog along with the other two.  We ended up allowing him to run loose like the dogs do and they kind of kept an eye on him as did our neighbors.  Usually Zoey and Martin would sit on the front porch and hang out every day.  Occassionally they would wander over to the vacant lot always coming back.  We could go out and call to Martin and he and Zoey would head for home.  When cars drove up, Roxie and Zoey would run out there barking their heads off, and Martin would run out there as well, not barking of course, but part of the gang.

One time, the kids walked to the river to play and shortly thereafter Martin began to follow them.  The kids had no idea Martin was coming and never looked back.  Zoey, good dog that she is, stayed with Martin.  Our golfing neighbor, Carl, saw them and called to report on them.  I hopped in the van and drove down Road 76 and right up to the two animals who were prancing down the street without a care in the world.  I opened the van door, told them to get in and they both jumped right in.  I felt like a true red-neck with a goat standing next to me in the van as I turned around and drove home.  He refused to be in the back.  "That is NOT where dogs go."  Silly me!

Another time I was inside and turned to see Kaitlin and Martin running full steam from Martin's pen to the house.  Now Martin runs very fast, but I am pretty sure Kaitlin was winning the race.  I ran outside to see what the matter was and Kaitlin reported seeing a snake.   I would run too.  I went out to Martin's pen and poked around rather reluctantly, but being the only responsible adult at home I didn't have much choice.  Sure enough I saw a small brown snake.  I googled snakes in WA and found that most likely the snake is harmless.  A few days later Zoey and Roxie found the snake and began fighting over it while Martin stood and watched.  We had to hose them down to get them to stop. 

While the family was in Utah on their trip and we were still home, Kaitlin went outside to feed Martin some old bread (he thinks that is a real treat) and the two dogs began fighting over this bread.  This is the only time these two dogs have ever fought.  It also just happened to be Friday the 13th.  We were trying to break up the fight with a board and Kaitlin tried to pull the dogs apart and got bit and spent the evening in the ER with a broken finger and chewed up finger.  All this just in time for vacation and the fair.

The first group of pictures are ones before we took Martin to the fair, see the splint on Kaitlin's left hand.  She was out practicing walking with him.  The goats have to be able to walk and stop and stand in a certain position on command during the fair.  Part of the competition is to see how well the goat can be handled as well as how well the goat handler can handle the goat.  Did that make sense?  Sometimes at the fair they will even have the goats and owners swap in the competition to see how each does.  Martin thinks Kaitlin and I are his mom's and follow us around a lot.  He doesn't like Kylee at all so when we know Martin should have exercise we send Kylee out to scare him and he runs like crazy. 

See how Martin is looking at Kaitlin - he really loves her.

 

 Now to the Benton Franklin County Fair!  This is during one of the competitions.  Martin is by far one of the biggest goats in the place.  Everyone would remark about that as they would see him in his pen. 

Home Sweet Home at the Fair

Martin in the center and his room mate to the right. 
(They are actually brothers)

Martin and Kaitlin did very well!

 At the end of the fair there is an auction to sell all of the animals.  They then go to be butchered.  All through out the week you could see Kaitlin becoming sadder and sadder as she is so tender-hearted.  Martin is her friend - how could this happen.  On auction day I sent Kylee to the fair and she spied out how the auction works and found the McBride's, a family from our old ward.  They do pigs every year and Kylee arranged with them that if they would buy Martin, Kaitlin would return them money to them and they would return Martin to us and we would find a home for him.  Kylee worked hard and was nervous that she wouldn't be successful in saving Martin's (and Kaitlin's) life.  SHE DID IT!  They had been planning on bidding on Martin anyway so Kaitlin could earn some money.  He ended up being sold for over $700.00.  Who would have thought!  Kaitlin didn't know this was all going on while she was showing Martin at the auction in the pictures below.  She kept on her smiley face throughout the ordeal.  The McBride family are so wonderful - they even refused to accept the money back from Kaitlin and told her to put the money in her college fund.

 

 We did find a home for Martin.  He lives in Spokane now along with a horse.  I guess the neighborhood kids love him and they even had to change the bus stop for the school bus as the kids would always be congregate around Martin and his field and would never be at the bus stop a short distance away.  His new owner even has a Facebook page for him called Martin the Goat.  So - all in all - it was a good experience - but Kaitlin said she would NEVER do that again!