Amelia, Girl Genius!

  I should have known when I went out for chores one night and Luciano was hanging out with Gwen that something was amiss. You see, Luciano and Amelia are virtually inseparable. They are rarely more than a few feet from one another, but I was busy doing the usual evening chores, putting birds and feeding bunnies. By the time, I got around to feeding and milking goats, it was already getting dark. It was then that I noticed that Amelia was not with the group. 

  I grabbed a flashlight, called the two dogs, and headed toward the back pasture. I had a feeling I knew where I'd find her. I started calling her name as soon as I got out to the back pasture. I could just barely hear her calling back in the distance. I followed the sound and the instincts of my trusty farmdogs and soon enough we came upon one very unhappy goat. 

Sure enough. There she was with her fool head stuck in the fence...again. 

  Getting her head stuck in fences was beginning to be a full time career for this little genius. On the day these pics were taken, Amelia managed to get her head stuck in the SAME fence four times! In fact, I decided to tack up a layer of chicken wire on top of the existing fencing to keep this from happening and Amelia stuck her head through the fence and got stuck AGAIN not 10 feet from me!

   We used to think that Amelia's mother, Thea, wasn't too bright because she was disbudded incorrectly. When goats are very young, some people will burn off their horn buds using what is basically a soldering iron. If held on too long, it can cause the brain to heat up and be damaged, but it seems Thea came by her smarts the honest way, though, because her daughter shares that particular trait in spades. (Actually, one of the arguments FOR disbudding is to avoid having the goat get stuck in fences.) 

  After a while of this foolishness, we decided to take action. 

  Here is Amelia in her dunce cap. It is simply a short length of PVC held on loosely with hose clamps. We also wrapped the clamps in vet wrap to keep them from rubbing her horns too much.

 Aside from a lot pointing and snickering from the other goats, it doesn't seem to bother Amelia in the least and so far, she had not managed to get herself stuck in a fence since she starting wearing her special head gear. Hopefully, if we keep this on her for a few weeks, she will learn that her head no longer fits in those small opening in the fence and quit trying. Also, pretty soon her horns will grow out to a point where they won't fit either.