Today I decided to deviate a little from my normal train of thought and tell you about one of my goats and how much I have learned about human behavior from this animal. In fact, one can learn all you need to know about human behavior by observing animals. The frightening part is, our supposed superior intellect does not give us much of an advantage over the beasts of the fields and the sad part is, our morality has lowered to the level of the beasts.
Hannah came to our goat herd about seven years ago, when she was five. She is the largest of all the females and she is a problem child. The first year I had the herd out on the road doing weed and brush control, she nearly got my dog, Jinx, hit by a car as she followed the goat across a highway. At that time, I wanted to kill Hannah but I just fired her from my work crew. Last summer, I put Hannah back on the work crew out of necessity as we didn’t have enough goats to choose who got to go on the road, so I am stuck with her until old age catches up with her, and that is when sweet justice will prevail.
Hannah is one of those type of goats you think you can trust but the moment you turn your back, she will do something to upset the whole goat cart. If she sees and opening in a gate or fence, she will go through it, leading the other goats on a wild chase that usually ends up with me commanding the dogs to get her down. That wouldn’t be so bad except for Joy, who loves to hold on and not let go, leaving the goat with some kind of cut. But in some respects, I am not sorry for the pain inflicted upon Hannah because I cannot find a way to teach her to stay where she is suppose to stay. At her age of nearly 13, I highly doubt that she will learn anything positive and her propensity to cause trouble will only give her more ammunition for causing me grief.
I really want to trust Hannah and for a while, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and for a while, things go well, then she turns like a season, unexpectedly and when least prepared. Hannah’s daughter, Havanah is exactly like her mother and as a younger goat, she is more agile and when we get her into the working chute, if we don’t crowd her quickly, she’ll jump out, missing all vaccinations and de-wormings. I think in three years, Havanah has received one vaccination and has never been de-wormed. Neither goat should be in our herd but their resilience and ability to raise quality babies keeps them from the cull pen. You might say I love to hate them.
Deep down I think the reason I keep both Hannah and Havanah is because they are a reminder of human nature and in some regards politicians. You want to trust them and for a while, you can, then when least expected, they turn on you and screw you in some way. Hannah has ruined many good electric netting fences. It costs me money to repair the fences, yet I keep her because of her genetic traits that are desirable, even if her behavior is questionable. The only real thing I can count on Hannah for is to be unreliable, troublesome and at times, a good indicator of something being wrong in the herd. IF there is a problem, Hannah is the first to run, hide and run off in the wrong direction, this is the 100% reliability about her I can depend.
I hate this doe with a passion, yet, it is her unreliability that I depend upon, it keeps me on my toes and alert, when I might become complaisant. With Hannah in the herd, I know I have to keep on top of things, to prevent problems. When you think about Hannah and her undesirable characteristics, you can compare her to politicians. You hate them for their unreliability, yet you know they are capable of going the wrong way if you don’t pay attention to them. Yet they are the ones we keep re-electing and we keep track of them and raise hell with them, when they screw up. The one constant is that they cannot be trusted without you watching them constantly. Perhaps I should cull Hannah from the herd, it would make life more simple and quiet. Hmmm, maybe we should do the same to certain politicians, after all, we have too many Hannah’s in Washington D.C,