Chuck McCaffrey, Goatherd

We continue to move into the new campus, to fix things up, to make them work or at least adapt them to work for the time being as we continue to convert the old hotel into a new medical school campus.

Many folks on the island keep some farm animals at home. It is very common to walk past a yard and see sheep, goats, horses, cattle, chickens, and the like just minding their own business, grazing and the like. They are often untethered. The smaller animals seem not to wander much, but the larger animals often wander jut to graze or investigate or whatever. No one bothers them, and they bother no one. Occasionally, they might be tethered by a long cord of 20 or 40 feet or so, but sometimes they are not.

Two weeks ago, just before we started moving to the new campus, I was walking beside the road betwen my former apartment and the temporary campus. Ahead of me was a small herd of goats grazing on the side of the road. Suddenly, two stray dogs started chasing the goats, startling them. The goats ran to try to get away, and some of them ran into traffic on the road, where three of them, an adult and two small goats, were struck and run over by a truck, which drove away without stopping. The dogs immediately attacked the downed goats, grabbing them by the throats in their jaws, growling in a way I have never before heard dogs growl.

Running up, I shouted at the dogs and threw sticks at them, anything to scare them away and get them to leave the goats alone. Another fellow who had been in an office nearby and had seen the accident joined me in trying to scare off the dogs. By the time I ran up, which took only a few seconds, they had dragged the two smaller goats into the creek that runs by the road. I grabbed the adult goat by its four legs as I've seen done in movies, picked it up and pulled it out of the oncoming traffic so that it would not get hit again. I tried to comfort it, but I could not. It's back legs were both broken, and it flailed them as it was trying to stand up, which of course it could not do. It's hindquarters also appeared to have been injured. It was in shock and terrified.

The other fellow went after the dogs, chasing them and shouting at them to keep them away. I jumped into the creek—which wasn't deep, only 2 or so feet of water over a deep layer of mud—to try to help the two smaller goats so they wouldn't drown. One was dead. It had been killed instantly by the impact with the truck. The other was severely injured, with broken legs and injured hindquarters like the adult. I quickly got it out of the creek, and set it down. Although it, too, was in shock and terrified, I was able to comfort it better probably because it was so small.

The other fellow said that they two dogs would have to be "put down" because now they were dangerous. They had acted in a pack mentality and would do so again, attaching anything that ran away from them, perhaps other farm animals, perhaps children. So, he went to get the police. They arrive and shot a dog, but it turned out not to be either of the two strays, which I saw again the next day.

The man who owned the goats arrived. He picked up the dead goat and two injured goats to take to a vet, though I doubt that the vet could do anything for the two injured goats. Perhaps. I hope so.

As I mentioned, the new campus is on top of a very large hill. Once or twice a day, I walk to a small market near the bottom of the hill for a cold drink or a snack. Yesterday, as I was on my way down the hill, I happened on another goat in trouble. This goat was tethered about its neck, and it had gotten its 20-foot tether entwined and tangled in brush and the cable holding up a power pole. The poor thing had gotten itself so tightly wound up that it had but a few inches of tether left. So short was the slack in its tether that it could neither fully stand up nor sit down without causing it to choke. I have no idea how long the goat was stuck like that, but its legs were quivering as if it were exhausted from trying to hold that awkward position, so I suspect it had been there for a long time.

I stopped and spoke to the goat in a calming voice as I spent several minutes untangling its tether. When I had finished, I resecured the tether in such a way as I thought it unlikely that the goat would tangle itself up again, and I was on my way. It felt good to be a simple help.

Seldom have I felt so helpless, so unable to help when I so wanted to help, as when I stopped to help the injured goats by the road. Seldom have I felt better than when I stopped to help the tangled goat. I wasn't able to move the rubber tree plan much in the first case. I hope I made up for that failure in the second.