Tea Time With Goats

If you are a prospective goat owner, there are several things you should get. (First on your list should be a mental health consult, but if you're leaping into this adventure anyway, read on.) Immediately start collecting brooms and dustpans, as well as containers of all sizes - from tiny plastic containers for treats to large trash cans (with tight lids) for grain, which is sold only in 50 pound bags. You will need water bowls, small pans for mineral supplements, larger tubs for hay...and a teapot.

As I have mentioned before, goats detest cold water. Mine have taken this peculiar aversion one step farther - refusing to drink cool water, or even lukewarm water. Although I invested nearly a week's pay in a complex electric water-warming system, Emerson and Ellie turn up their noses and pretend it's not there. (I have seen them use it exactly once, the first day I installed it, when they gave it an experimental slurp and decided they hated it.) What my slightly-spoiled caprines desire is water hot enough to steep tea. Hence the teapot.

Being a coffee drinker myself, I knew very little about the finer points of tea consumption until last year when Emily suddenly developed a taste for this elegant beverage. After purchasing several boxes of bargain brand tea bags (apparently unpalatable), I learned several things about what makes a satisfactory cup of tea. For example, who knew that you can order her favorite Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea by the case on ebay? (I do not recommend this, however - it seems that after a few weeks, the tea-drinker becomes tired of this pricey flavor and then you are stuck with 23 boxes of the stuff...although it makes great teacher gifts at Christmas!)

Another thing Emily informed me is that water heated in the microwave is not the same as water from a teapot, a kitchen appliance I have somehow survived 23 years of marriage without. I was excited to find this cute green one at a thrift store, until we realized at home that it was missing the spout flap and therefore would never, ever whistle. But guess what? When you run steaming hot water from the bathtub, this is the ideal container to transport the water out to the goats. The metal keeps the water hot and the goats go crazy when they see me bringing it to the pen, eagerly slurping out of the bowl while I am still pouring.

I wonder if the goats would like Wild Sweet Orange...