Rubber...It's What's for Dinner?

One of the benefits of having teenage daughters is that occasionally you can pawn off some of the housework on them...Megan, for example, is an awesome laundry helper and often empties the dishwasher without being asked. Emily is a decent cook - well, usually. Tonight she favored us with a new, healthful recipe she's been eager to try - vegetarian black bean burgers. My husband claimed he had eaten a late lunch and wasn't hungry, so the girls and I dined together in the kitchen. I'm not sure whether it was the texture, the taste or the general appearance of these burgers...but for some reason I was reminded of a problem we're having with Emerson lately. (Keep thinking about those burgers...)

Ok, although most domestic goats are housed on a bedding of straw or hay, ours have been raised with their living quarters lined with interlocking vinyl black mats, a situation we found to be much cleaner and less allergenic (to us) than copious amounts of straw everywhere. Since our goats are trained to eliminate their waste only in specific areas, this has worked exceedingly well for us - until now. Two days ago Emerson started eating the mats.

We first noticed a few chewed corners, then I caught him nibbling chunks off the edges of the deck mats. Eight months this has never been a problem - why now? It's like a recurrence of his shingle-eating several months ago. My options are limited here. I could remove all the mats, forcing the goats to sleep (and us to sit with them) on the cold ground, or I could treat the mats with nasty deer-repellant spray. This would likely cause them to avoid all contact with the mats forever.  

As I have recently nursed our scampy Emerson back from the scare of urinary calculi, a fearsome malady few goats survive, it is difficult to be too harsh with him. But really, Emerson?? We finally have a handle on this whole goat thing - Emily and I even custom-cut mats to the exact dimensions of their shed, their driveway house and their deck hut. There are mats on the deck for sleeping, even a mat in their outdoor pen that Elliot uses to pee on when the grass is wet. (Yes, spoiled, I know...) I really don't want to take the mats away, but I'm also fairly certain that large quantities of rubber cannot be good for caprine digestion.

Back to those vegetarian black bean burgers, I'm not sure what made me think about eating rubberized vinyl during dinner...but maybe Emily will bake chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Otherwise I might have to join Emerson for a snack outside; I'm definitely still hungry (since most of my burger "accidentally" fell into the trash can...) Hey - I wonder if goats can eat black beans? We have ten burgers left...