Trick-or-Treat!

Happy Halloween from Em and Ellie (who chose their costumes to commemorate the 75th anniversary of our favorite classic film).

Elliot: I've been clicking my hooves together all day, Lion, but I still can't get us back to that delicious poppy field!

Emerson: Courage? Who needs it? If I ever meet The Great and Powerful Oz, my only wish is to get out of this hideous furry suit! She won't show this picture to anyone, will she?

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A friend told me about a psychological research study which proved that animals become annoyed when their owners dress them up in costumes. (Yes, is anyone else wondering who was stupid enough to fund that project?? And how it was actually published??) I admit it - while I find these photos quite amusing, my goats do not enjoy this activity. Considering that these were the third outfits we tried on, and Elliot became so entangled in his dress that we had to cut it off with scissors, "annoyed" seems a mild description here. I can sympathize with how they feel, having experienced annoyance myself...like when someone ate my strawberry plants, gored a hole in the screen door and left a trail of poop all over the deck. (That was today.) I am often annoyed by pets who escape from their pen and run off down the driveway, or refuse to drink the hot vinegar water I haul outside on chilly nights. Goats, you owe this to me. 

Several years ago, we took a vacation to the ocean with four other families, all in one house. As an avid scrapbooker, my primary goal was to take one terrific group photo of all sixteen kids on the beach together. Too busy building drizzle castles, riding waves and chasing their cousins through the sand, the kids would not cooperate with my efforts to pose them in a line. That's when I lost it, and in a moment which likely still haunts some of the younger children, I began screaming at them.

(ANGRY AUNT VOICE): "I've spent two weeks packing for this trip; I got up at four in the morning to drive seven hours here; I'm sharing a bathroom with nine other people and tonight I'm cooking dinner for twenty-six on three hours of sleep and if you kids don't get over here right now I swear I'll put a pound of sand in the meatloaf and maybe some jellyfish too! NOW LINE UP BY AGE - AND SMILE!!!"

Now I know better. I should have just bribed all the kids with animal crackers!