Chat
11-01-2015, 11:04 AM
Yesterday was Halloween, and what better way to celebrate than with goats!?
Our town of Rye has a big celebration each year where they close off Main Street, all the downtown houses and businesses decorate, and people like Phil and I who live further from town park along the street and decorate our vehicles and hand out candy. We didn't bring our camera, but I'm hoping the pictures my friend took will come out good enough for her to send them to me this week.
Phil and I dressed as circus clowns and we brought Finn and Sputnik as our circus goats. I used red and black vet wrap to decorate Finn's horns, and green and purple for Sputnik's. Both goats had mini tennis balls stuck on their horn points (vet wrapped firmly in place) so they would be safe around the crowds. I was very proud of the boys--both goats were extremely well-behaved and no one got bonked with a tennis ball even by mistake, but it's better safe than sorry, and the horns looked great with stripes! The boys looked like they were wearing jester's caps with bells on the ends.
I also made Finn a little circus rig from some spare harness parts. He wore a surcingle and side reins, and I decorated them with red and gold bridle and rein flags I once made for a medieval horse costume. It was really cute! Sputnik wore a little saddle horn bag with the intention that we would fill the panniers with candy. But we were so busy having fun with goats that we never collected the candy.
The goats were amazingly well-behaved all evening. Finn couldn't get enough of everyone's attention. He loved the kids, shook hands with several adults, and adored being stroked and petted. Sputnik was a bit more leery of the petting. He was very good about it and even seemed to enjoy having his forehead scratched, but I had to make sure the kids pet him up near his face or neck where he could see them. He wasn't cool with people walking up behind and petting him from the rear--it startled him and he would jump or swing his head around to look. Finn didn't care where people touched him--as long as someone was petting him, he was in heaven. Sputnik much preferred performing over petting--he ran through his repertoire more times than I could count and never got tired of the routine. Sputnik was so noisy in the truck on the way there that I wasn't sure he would make it through the night without having some sort of meltdown. But he settled down as soon as we unloaded and he was shockingly good about everything. Neither of the goats were alarmed by the lights, eerie noises, weird costumes, masks, or fog machines. Both of them loved the candy and popcorn! Finn had so much fun that he refused to get in the truck when it was time to go home and I had to pull him in by force. Once in, he jumped back out before I could tie him up and we had to start over. Sputnik bawled all the way home, which is something he's never done before. He usually only bawls on the outward journey. So I think it's safe to say that both goats had such a marvelous Halloween that they didn't want it to end. I felt like one of those tired, hassled parents telling their protesting, crying toddlers that it's time to go home.
Our town of Rye has a big celebration each year where they close off Main Street, all the downtown houses and businesses decorate, and people like Phil and I who live further from town park along the street and decorate our vehicles and hand out candy. We didn't bring our camera, but I'm hoping the pictures my friend took will come out good enough for her to send them to me this week.
Phil and I dressed as circus clowns and we brought Finn and Sputnik as our circus goats. I used red and black vet wrap to decorate Finn's horns, and green and purple for Sputnik's. Both goats had mini tennis balls stuck on their horn points (vet wrapped firmly in place) so they would be safe around the crowds. I was very proud of the boys--both goats were extremely well-behaved and no one got bonked with a tennis ball even by mistake, but it's better safe than sorry, and the horns looked great with stripes! The boys looked like they were wearing jester's caps with bells on the ends.
I also made Finn a little circus rig from some spare harness parts. He wore a surcingle and side reins, and I decorated them with red and gold bridle and rein flags I once made for a medieval horse costume. It was really cute! Sputnik wore a little saddle horn bag with the intention that we would fill the panniers with candy. But we were so busy having fun with goats that we never collected the candy.
The goats were amazingly well-behaved all evening. Finn couldn't get enough of everyone's attention. He loved the kids, shook hands with several adults, and adored being stroked and petted. Sputnik was a bit more leery of the petting. He was very good about it and even seemed to enjoy having his forehead scratched, but I had to make sure the kids pet him up near his face or neck where he could see them. He wasn't cool with people walking up behind and petting him from the rear--it startled him and he would jump or swing his head around to look. Finn didn't care where people touched him--as long as someone was petting him, he was in heaven. Sputnik much preferred performing over petting--he ran through his repertoire more times than I could count and never got tired of the routine. Sputnik was so noisy in the truck on the way there that I wasn't sure he would make it through the night without having some sort of meltdown. But he settled down as soon as we unloaded and he was shockingly good about everything. Neither of the goats were alarmed by the lights, eerie noises, weird costumes, masks, or fog machines. Both of them loved the candy and popcorn! Finn had so much fun that he refused to get in the truck when it was time to go home and I had to pull him in by force. Once in, he jumped back out before I could tie him up and we had to start over. Sputnik bawled all the way home, which is something he's never done before. He usually only bawls on the outward journey. So I think it's safe to say that both goats had such a marvelous Halloween that they didn't want it to end. I felt like one of those tired, hassled parents telling their protesting, crying toddlers that it's time to go home.