Here’s how it started the other night. Me. Peacefully finishing up milking the last goat of the evening…Canela.
The process once finished is this: Remove red and blue sweet feed bucket from its holder and place by Canela’s shoulder to entice her to remove her head from the guillotine and shove it in the feed bucket again. Then, move the feed bucket (while dragging her head inside of it) toward the door so she jumps off the stand and leaves so I can clean up.
That process all worked.
Until Dottie made up her mind to FORCE her way in. Then Lucy on her tail.
When Dottie makes up her mind, it’s nearly impossible for any human to change it.
Reminder: Dottie is the brown one with the white spottie. Lucy is black.
Dottie pushes her way through my full body milkroom-doorway-blockade. I grab her collar. She spins me around so that my arm is pinned (backwards) against the inside of the milk room wall while my body remains stubbornly outside. If not for my semi-diligent yoga practice, my shoulder would have immediately popped out of the socket. However, after 3 seconds of near dislocation, I gave in to Dottie and her brute strength.
She thundered in straight for the sweet feed bucket. Lucy jumped up on the stand after her.
And I, thinking of that old Iroquois saying, “What you resist, persists,” gave in to the madness.
I have learned it is easier to fully succumb and then work it out later. Throw out one goat at a time, safely closing the door afterward so the exiled goat may not return. Repeat process until 4 goats are removed.
If you try to block all 4 goats (i.e. resist) from entering,
The Goats Will Win (i.e. persist).
- The Goat Cheese Lady