Dolly, the Three-Legged Goat
I never knew Dolly when she had four legs.
Before she was ours, Dolly had gotten her leg caught in a fence (a typical goat move), and the vet was unable to save the leg. Her original owner had no use for a three-legged goat, so he abandoned her.
At that time, we only had one goat, which is not advisable. Goats are herd animals — they can get severely depressed if they don’t have a buddy. The vet who had Dolly asked if we wanted a three-legged goat. Heck yes, we did.
Dolly is beautiful. I have no idea what her pedigree is, but there’s definitely some kind of fiber goat in her heritage. Some goats are raised for meat, some for milk, and some for fiber. The hair on Dolly’s back and along her belly is long and soft, especially in the winter. It makes her extra cuddly-looking.
We occasionally milk our goats to make soap, but they’re mostly pets. We don’t expect them to earn their keep — we just like them. Dolly, who is only a pet, fits right in.
And the missing leg? It doesn’t slow her down.
She’s sweet as she can be — to humans. Because goats have a social hierarchy, she is an absolute bully to the other goats. I guess she realizes that, if she’s not at the top of the hierarchy, she’ll be at the bottom. She has an ally in this, a small pygmy-Nigerian dwarf cross named Margaret. Together, they terrorize the other goats. They’re like the playground bullies of our goat farm. If the other goats carried lunch money, Dolly and Margaret would steal it all.
But there’s one kind of goat that Dolly doesn’t bully — baby goats. We haven’t let Dolly have babies because we fear that the missing leg would make delivery hard on her. It’s a shame because she loves the babies. She’s Aunt Dolly to the little ones, until they grow up. She lets them crawl all over her.
One day, I went out to the goat barn and saw Dolly lying in her doorway with a small creature between her front hooves. A baby squirrel had fallen from its nest. I think Dolly was trying to keep it safe. We found a wildlife rehabilitator to take it in.
We’ve had Dolly for several years now. Even this deep into middle age, she’s still the queen. She wants all the attention and all the treats, and who could possibly resist giving them to her?
