Oh, the Indignity of It All!

Tommy Boy, my most photogenic and photograhed angora goat was shorn today along with 19 others. I have a LOT of fleeces, wool and mohair, to sort through. Jim Baldwin is so much fun to work with, telling jokes and chatting about funny situations and strange clients he's worked with. I was lucky to get him. He told a story and a new customer who called looking for a shearer. When the person said, "Well, I have about 25 sheep and 10 angora goats..." Jim heard goats and started yelling, HELLO???HELLO??? pretending to be cut off!!!!!. That's how most shearers are about goats. They have horns and loose skin, and they wiggle and bend into contortions when being shorn, giving the shearer fits. I was in charge of hoofs. Matt catches the goats who are contained in the far end of the barn. He will go in the pen and catch one, drag it over to the shearing area and through the gate. I am waiting with shots and hoof trimmers. I bend over and pull up all four hoofs, one at a time, between my legs and hold it with my knees while trimming. Colored angora goats have very hard hoofs and it's tricky to do it right. Each hoof must resemble a platform shoe when I'm done. Often flaps of hoof have grown over the bottom of it and I have to pry it up and trim it off. Sometimes I have to squeeze the handles of the trimmers with both hands it's so hard. And on and on. Meantime Jim is bent over working on a goat and I need to get my part done before he is finished because I have to hop up and scoop up the fleece, bag it, and sweep off the platform before the next goat comes in. So Maggie was a little wasted at the end, nursing blisters on the hands. We got the job done, cheek to cheek sometimes, and came out laughing. The goats were scratching and gnawing on parts of themselves they had not been able to get to for months...and looking very satisfied, but rather naked with their summer haircuts.