How to "haul" goats home?

[Melissa'sDreamFarm]

Calliopia that was hilarious!!! Glad I have a truck with a bed liner. The lady said both dwarf nigerian's will fit in my dog crate/cage. I plan to put a tarp on to eliminate some of the wind and/or any wet "weather". I will add a blanket to the bottom and it will be an interesting 2 hour ride home. I'll be sure to let you guys know and take some pictures of my first goats after next weekend.

 

[D&E_Creamery]

My method is to pull all the seats out of the back of my van and head out to pick them up. Drive 2 hours out of a 4 hour trip and realize I have nothing between me and the goats. Pull over and put "Goodwill" into the GPS search and start looking for a baby gate. 45 minutes later and 2 baby gates lashed to the back of the front seats, I realize that while crawling around in the back I wasn't standing on a tarp. Crap. Oh look, there's a Walmart. Go in Walmart, buy water and a snack and completely forget the tarp. Get back on the road.

Drive the remainder of the trip and shave 30 min off the drive time. Speeding, nope not me. I never speed. Um yeah...


Arrive and gush over cutie wonderful marvelous enormous goaties that are going home with me. Load all the goat stuff (an electric fence with posts and the milking stand) and realize there's not much room for the goats. Reload van and put the posts on the roof rack.

Start to load goats and realize that I bought water instead of a tarp at Walmart. Gahh!

Fiddle around in the front seat until I find a trash bag and a piece of plastic drop cloth under the seat. (I swear my car is really a Bag of Holding) Manage to cover at least 1/2 of the carpet with plastic and cross my fingers.


Open the back and the sliding door and start loading goaters. Get Becca loaded in the back. Start to get Dixie loaded and Becca scoots out the side door. Gah. Hand Dixie to the owner's brother and we chase down Becca. Catch Becca who by now has decided this is a GREAT game and get her loaded back in the van. I go with her to hold onto her collar and the owner and her brother heft Dixie into the back. They shut the back of the van and Dixie surges forward. I manage to hold onto her collar and keep HER from scooting out the side door. The owner shuts the side door. I'm now in the back of a minivan with a milking stand and two 150lb Nubians... and I'm in between the Nubians. Did I mention I'm 5'10"? Somehow, it's kind of a blur at this point, I manage to get around Dixie and wend my way to the sliding door. I start to open it and get double teamed by the girls. They want out. Sigh. Back in between the girls and I scootch myself over the babygate lashed to the back of the front seats. (the owner is now wondering what she has gotten her poor goats into)

Somersaulting into the front seat and smacking my elbow on the steering wheel I manage to get out of the car. Again.. a blur.

Goaties are locked in the back with all their crap and they are making their opinion known. I pay the nice lady for her goats and we start the 4 hour trip home. They make their opinion known the whole way home. I mentioned that they were Nubians right... They SOOO made their opinion known. I had to keep checking to make sure I didn't accidentally load another 12 goats in the back or we hadn't suddenly been boarded by pirates as I can think of no other reason for the noise level.

4-5 hours later... (checking for pirates takes a while) I arrive back home. Toss the goats in the round pen. Remember that electric fence I loaded up first... Yeah that needs to be put up for the goats to go in to. I think I got to bed around 11:30 that night after starting out around 5:30 in the morning.

Anyway.. That's how I moved my first goats. I learned a couple lessons along the way. Like plastic the whole back because they will stand on the only plastic covered area so that they can do their business on the carpet. Plus the plastic is more slidey to make turns extra special. Or just kiss your carpets goodbye as I have now done.

Hope this helps in some way. Even if it is just to get an idea of what not to do.

I'm dying. This post is eleven years old and I'm sorry for replying but I'm laughing my buns off. I'm buying two adult Alpines today and I'm thinking of loading them in the back of my suburban. This sounds like about what I expect to happen to me.