Sure I've heard stories of peoples lives being changed by a dog or a horse...but never experienced it myself so...therefore...I didn't really know if it was true that a animal could teach you so much...I mean after all they can't talk or communicate with us at all right?
Wrong.....Oh, how very wrong I was....
Sure our first two goats Nibbles, and my brother's goat Kitty, changed our lives. They are two more bodies added to our families. They are eight hooves to clip every four weeks, hair to brush (even though it seems to do no good, they always seem to get dirty again right after), and all the other little things that comes with taking care of animals. They are friends that make us laugh and, one just cant refuse those furry goat lips rubbing across your face. lol So, yes they changed our lives for the better for sure, but as far as teaching us anything? Not....really....not like Chance has taught me....
I will tell you his story....well more like both of ours....cause I am not the same person I was before I had him....
Chance and his sister were born in late last February I believe...I don't have his exact birth date but it was sometime between there and the first few weeks of March....
He was one of the tiniest babies I saw last year born on our friends farm. They were both very cute and I took turns holding both of them as much as I could, even though they weren't my goats...
Three months rolled by and it was time for the babies to be weaned and such...Even though Chance was a buck at the time...our friends didn't want him to be a buck...for many reasons...he just wasn't what they were looking for in a buck...sooo thus the awful process of making him not a buck began...along with burning his horns off so he could be sold to a 4H program...
You have no idea how horrifying dehorning is (or if you have goats you might.) ...they scream and cry so loudly it just breaks your heart...I remember very well taking him into my arms....sitting in the dirty hay against the fence and cradling him trying to sooth his whimpers...he laid so still...his eyes closed...yet baaing in the most heart wrenching noises....I couldn't hold it back any longer and I started to cry......I don't really know why but I did...there was something about that little goat....
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Perhaps it was the thought of how he had to go through all of this just to have to be sold to some kid that is going to show him and then just throw him away to be slaughtered for someones table hurt...really hurt...made me really angry...
Pretty much as soon as I got home that day we got a phone call from our friends...They wanted to give him to me for free! Oh I cannot express how happy and dumbfounded I was...this is really where my teaching began...
After being dehorned it was like Chance's whole character changed. Instead of being the wonderful little "lap goat" that he had been...he was now scared of everything and everybody but maybe his own shadow...maybe...
He wouldn't even let me near him...I had to run around the barn till I was dead tired to catch him...I had to put a collar and a lead rope on him just to get close to him....He would shake under my hand...and baa like he was being hurt the whole time...It was then that I realized this was going to take a lot of work...lol
From then on...for a few months...I had to go in the barn...catch him...put on a collar and lead rope and walk around with him on it the whole time we were at the barn...on top of that I had to lay him flat on his back many times to show him that he could trust me...much to his disliking....if that isn't a good parallel to how God teaches us to trust him I don't know what is... ;)
There were many times that things seemed to be going backwards instead of forwards...and many times that my parents thought it was hopeless to work with a goat that clearly didn't want anything to do with me...they even suggested I turn him in for a different goat...but I said no of course...even though there were times I felt like giving up and saying yes...
And then one beautiful day...something must have clicked....he finally started coming to me instead of me coming to him....and from then on it just got better....in fact now he pretty much follows me around like a little puppy follows his mom...lol
But you know what...through all that I think I learned to trust and have patience more than Chance did...There is no rushing a perfect relationship with an animal...I learned that pretty quick...Just like there is no rushing a perfect relationship with God...We grow in Christ more each day...it never stops... I learned not to give up too...even when it seems hopeless...
So yes...animals can teach you something....and I know God put my One Last Chance in my life...I know it was Him...no doubt about it...that goat has taught me so much...so much about even unconditional love...the list just goes on and on....I don't know what I would do without that goat....it might sound silly but I'm seriously almost brought to tears over his story...our story...
Thank you, Jesus....
Thank you, my precious boy...
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