Ginger - the Houdini of the goat world

Once upon a time there was a very naughty goat called Ginger.  When she was very small, she would slide out through the bars of her pen and run around the barn.  She would jump in all the feed troughs and sleep on the lucerne bale, until a human came and found her and put her back in with her friends.

The humans thought that as Ginger got older and larger, she would not be able to fit through the gaps in the bars any longer, but still she continued to squuueeeeeeezzzze herself out through the gate.  She would run around the barn, eat all the best hay from the large stack of bales and would then curl up in a corner and go to sleep.

As Ginger grew larger and fatter (due to all the extra hay that she ate) she began to develop a small udder, even though she had never had kids.  She started to produce milk and so the first 'maiden milker' in the herd had to join in with the routine of milking twice every day.  The humans thought that having an udder would definitely stop her climbing out of her pen.  Just goes to show that humans know nothing ...

Ginger has now grown so fat that she can no longer squeeze through the gap in the gate.  But as she has also now grown taller, she just climbs OVER the gate instead.

And here she is ...

Checking the coast is clear

Getting into position

And over she goes!

Apparently, it's all my fault.  According to David, Ginger only climbs out when she hears my van drive into the farm yard.  And whenever I open the door to the barn, there she is waiting for me - usually with a large mouthful of something to keep her strength up!

Ginger is now about 18 months old and has been mated, ready to kid next spring.  Many goats change character completely once they have kidded - they calm down and become much more friendly.  It will be very interesting to see what happens to Ginger.  Genetics are very powerful though and so I suspect that we will just end up with a couple of small very naughty kids who are taught escape tactics by their mother!