Today Is the Day I'm Going to See the Baby Goat

I thought the next day of school would never end so I could go see the baby goat. The bell finally rang, and our teacher said, “Okay, it’s time to go so Debbie can go meet her goat.” She then smiled at me and said, “Debbie, go get your things. Your new member of your family is waiting to meet you.” I can remember when I got up. All my classmates were asking if they could come and meet him. I answered, “Sure, in two weeks when I get him—not this Saturday but the next Saturday. I will be at the farm all day, and everyone is welcome to come when you can. He has to stay with his mother a little while longer.”

Then the teacher said, “Okay, you better be going. Your grandfather is waiting.” With that, I was out of the classroom and out the front door of the school. I saw Pop’s car sitting in the parking lot. When I got to the street, the crossing guard said, “Okay, Debbie, you can cross. Your grandpop is waiting for you.” Pop got out of the car and helped me open the door, and then he saw my sister and brother coming down the sidewalk. They crossed the street and got into the car. Pop said, “Well, are we ready?” Well, you know the answer to that question.

The farm wasn’t too far from the school; we got there in a few minutes. That was one good thing about the island: nothing was too far away. When we pulled into the farm, there was a man standing, waiting for us. “Is that him?” I called out, and Pop said, “I don’t know. Let’s get out and see.” My sister got out first, and then my brother helped me out of the car. Pop walked over to the man, and they shook hands. Then he said, “Okay, these are my three grandchildren.” My sister, brother, and I all said hello to him. Then the man said, “Okay, which one of you is Debbie? I want you to know that your sister and brother will be helping you take proper care of-” he stopped. Then he said, “Do you have a name?”

“Yes, his name is going to be Billy, short for billy goat. Is that okay?” I asked.

“Well, Billy it is. And, Debbie, to finish, you have a lot of fun with Billy and let your brother and sister help you, for he is for all three of you. Your pop has told me that you really love animals. Well, getting Billy on the farm will be different. Just you wait and see.”

So finally, the two weeks were over, and that Saturday morning a truck pulled up, and I saw Billy in the truck. I called out to Pop to let him know Billy had arrived. I ran into the farmhouse and told Grandma and asked her if she could call home and tell my mom to let my brother and sister know. She told me she would, and I ran back outside. The man was talking to Pop, and Billy was still in the truck. The man kept an eye on him, and then he said to me, “I have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t start eating anything.” So I asked him if he had food in the truck. He laughed and said, “No, but he might start eating the truck. If I don’t keep watch, I might not have a dash anymore.”

I didn’t really know he was serious. I thought he was teasing me with what he said, but I found out real fast. If it was something he found, he ate it. We had a dump behind the shed where we put leftover food and scraps. Once in a while, a tin can got put there by mistake. Well, Billy had fun over there. One day he did come over to me, and he had a can in his mouth, and I went to take it away from him. I didn’t want him to get hurt if he kept on chewing on it. Well, that didn’t happen. He pulled away from me, and I ran after him.

Pop had seen what was going on, and he called out to me, “It’s okay, let him have it. You might get hurt if you’re able to get it away from him.” So I stopped chasing him, and Billy stopped and continued chewing the can. I went up to Pop and said to him, “Can’t it hurt him?”

He said, “No, nothing hurts a billy goat. If they find it, they eat it. Don’t you remember the man saying he might eat his truck? Well, now you know he was telling you the truth.”

After that, I looked back over to where Billy was chewing the can, but he wasn’t chewing it anymore; it was gone. Then he came back to me like nothing happened. After that, Billy always walked beside me when he wasn’t getting in trouble.

From that day on, whenever Billy found a treasure, I watched him eat it unless it was something he shouldn’t have, like Pop’s boots. He kept bringing them out of the barn. No matter where Pop put them, he would find them and bring them out. I learned how to get something away from him so I wouldn’t get hurt. All you had to do was get something else for him to chew up, and he would give up Pop’s boot. I had some paper cups in the barn, and I would scoop some feed into the cup, and he would take the cup and all. Grandma gave me the cups for this purpose, and it worked. She told me it gave Billy some roughage.

We had a small stall next to where Togo’s used to be. We never put anything in that stall except a wheelbarrow and odds and ends just lying around. Pop made a run for Billy while I was in school. Pop would let him stay with him for a while, then he would put him into his fenced area until I came home. This area was at the top of the lane where Pop used to keep the cows. But we didn’t have any more cows, so Pop said that would be a good place for Billy when he starts getting into trouble.

As soon as I was heading up the lane, he would see me coming and start to run back and forth until I got to him. Then he would follow me to the other side of the gate. It was so good to see him, and he loved to see me also. My brother and sister didn’t have as much time with him as I did. They were starting to do other things after school, and that was okay with me. This meant he was all mine, except on Saturdays and Sundays. They did come up to see Grandma and Pop and help with some jobs Pop had saved for them to do.

As Billy was getting older, he and I were always together. Whenever I was at the farm, he would follow me everywhere. He also got better about not taking things he shouldn’t—or should I say, we got better at putting things out of his reach. I really don’t know how old he got, but we did spend many years together. I tried to find a photo of him, but I wasn’t able to. My mom did have a fire in the house a few years ago, and some things got destroyed in the attic and were lost forever.

Looking back, it was definitely different having a goat on the farm. He was nothing like any of the other animals that I had spent time with. And remembering what the man had said about having a goat on the farm will be something you have never come across. This was so very true, but I loved every single moment I spent with him. By this time, Billy was getting up in years. When I went up to the farm, Billy was not walking around as usual. So I ran into the barn to see Billy showing no interest in me or in going outside. That’s when Pop told me he had already put a call out to the vet on the island. When he pulled up to the barn, I went out and told him he was in his stall. “Okay,” he replied, “I’ll be there in a minute.” He checked him over but didn’t say anything until he was totally finished. Then he told us it was his heart—it was slowing down, and it wasn’t enough for him. With that, Pop told us we had to go outside so the vet could do his job.

Growing up on the farm, we had many animals that needed to be put down, or we would find them already gone. I don’t know which way is better; either way, it was hard. Pop said, “Let’s go to the farmhouse and call your brother.” So we went in, and Grandma said he was on his way. No sooner had she spoken than he was already there. I was standing at the door looking at the barn when I saw the door open, and the vet came out with his bag in his hand. He told Pop that he had to put him to sleep and asked if we needed any help with him. Pop said, “No, we will take care of him.”

When my brother heard about Billy, he came right up to the barn, talked to Pop for a bit, and then went and got a shovel to start digging a place for Billy. There was a spot where we always buried all our animals that passed, and Billy was placed in that area.