The things you learn from goats.......

A little story that I think about, every time I have the honour to paint a goat:

Ever since I was a little girl, we had goats at our family property. First there were the goat with the special name Emmer (which means Bucket in dutch) and her best friend the old white goat. Emmer got her name for the obvious reason that she was just like a big bucket, you could throw in what ever you liked and she would eat it. I remember well, that I often was to be found at the goats place, with some horse brushes and treats to take care of the goats.

As it goes with animals, they sadly don't get as old as humans and it wasn't any different with Emmer and the old white.

A few year after the goats died, there were born some really sweet Noord-Hollandse Bonte goats in our little village. My parents and me chose one and the moment she was old enough we picked her up in the back of our car, where I got the honour of keeping an eye on our new goat Whoopy.

Whoopy was a really special goat that you could walk like a dog, brush like a horse and cuddle all day long.

Later on in my work as zookeeper and veterinary assistent,I learned that not every goat is as nice as our Whoopy was. Many of them are masters in escaping and destroying and some of them even love to plant their horns (or by the lack of horns their forehead) into your rib cage.

I've been doing a lot of internships at a veterinary practice, where the vet was a really religious man, who never ever would say something wrong, let alone swear.....

Until the moment that my sweet little Whoopy became incurable ill.

We tried everything we could to save her, but unfortunately, nothing worked. At one of the many treatments we gave her, Whoopy wasn't that willing to cooperate and everything didn't go as smooth as it should. She simply refused another injection. After a lot of attempts from the calm and patient vet and even more resistance from the goat, the vet couldn't take it anymore and out of his mouth came some words we never expected him to say. I guess he has been doing some extra praying that evening to make up for it :)

But all of this proved that the well known dutch saying is true:

"Goats will learn you how to swear!!!"

Greetings Katinka