A Package Deal?

It seems like a bit of a design flaw - that animals who develop thick winter coats and who do not appear to mind the frigid weather that chills me to the bone - also will only drink warm water. When I first read this in a goat manual months ago, I scoffed - even my pampered house cats disdain the tepid water in their patterned ceramic bowl in favor of a cool drink from the tap or the near-frozen bowl outside. Surely those fluffy goats could drink refreshing cold water like any other beast.

Not so. Em and Ellie will sniff at the bowl but walk away thirsty before partaking of chilled water. Even my veterinarian recommended an electric water-warmer for the boys. Not having yet budgeted for this purchase, Emily and I take turns heating up water for the goats every three hours, then suiting up in coat, snowpants, boots, mittens etc and carrying it outside, where the goats eagerly ambush us and slurp it all up. Most times they'll also need fresh hay, they'll beg for attention, and of course there will be scooping...Also Elliot seems to have a worrisome skin condition which I needed to check and they had ripped apart an entire bale of straw and made a huge mess everywhere...So last night after about my hundreth trip outside in sub-zero temperatures I was just pulling off my boots when Emily ran into the kitchen.

"Mom!" she exclaimed, "Keep your coat on! Dad found something on craigslist and we want to go see them. It's only fifteen minutes away!"

I was actually re-lacing my boot with numb fingers before my brain kicked back on. My husband is usually trolling the internet for old cars or motorcycles - what exactly are we going to look at?

Turns out someone only a few miles away was advertising for sale "16 goats (a mix of does and bucks) and one llama" - all for a mere $2000.00 (or best offer). Yes Emily, they do look very cute, and yes, the llama looks so fluffy, and yes, someone else might snatch them all up if we don't get there first - ARE YOU CRAZY???

Here's my idea. Emily is pretty good with computers. Maybe she can hack into the website and change just one little number, so instead of 16 goats for sale the ad will now read 18 goats (and one llama). If we go late at night we can just sneak our two into the herd and nobody will ever notice. Yeah, let me get my keys...