T
Goat Trek: The 3 Little Goats
and the Big Hill

by Nell (as told to Bonnie Clark)

It was a partly-cloudy morning. Seamus, Vinny and I were in a big truck with a lot of our friends from Verdant Vistas, our home. None of us knew where we were going, and a couple of our pals had left the truck that morning. We stopped at a grassy spot, with a house & 2 dogs running around. We didn’t like that a bit. Pat & George took us out of the truck and everything smelled different. We didn’t like that either. There was a person who seemed glad to see us. I remembered her smell, but only remembered running away from her a few times in Oregon. Seamus had some memories too, from when he was just a baby, of being held and petted by her. They were pleasant, but not really clear. Vinny didn’t know her & didn’t particularly want to, thank you very much.

 Pat, George and the strange person, whom they called Bonnie, put us in a strange yard, and we could still smell the dogs. Pat took some time to say goodbye to us. We couldn’t understand why she was leaving us with the strange person with the scary dogs. I think she was crying when she said good-bye. Bonnie tried to pet us, but we were not in the mood.

We spent the night in a stall that had fresh straw, water and a bunch of tree branches. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t home. We missed all our friends. Bonnie came out the next morning, bringing some more tree branches. She let us out and spent some time with us. I let her pet me some – it wasn’t too bad. So did Seamus, but Vinny was still not going for it. The dogs were barking at us. It made our ears hurt. The next day, some more people came over to see us. They seemed okay, but we missed our home and friends.

On the third day, Bonnie left for a long time. We walked around, checking out our yard and sampling different kinds of grass. It was pretty good. We could reach some of the tree branches too, although Vinny especially had to really stretch to get them. They were delicious! We could see a whole lot of longer grass & some more trees on the other side of the fence, but we couldn’t get there. Bonnie came home, gave us some more alfalfa and some grain, sat with us for awhile, then put us back in our stalls.

The next day, Bonnie left again, after letting us into our yard & giving us some more food. All three of us were looking at all that grass and trees on the other side of the fence. The dogs were barking at us, and one of them was running at the fence. How annoying! Vinny saw a small gap between the gate and the post. He called Seamus and me over and said, “Hey, you guys! I bet we could get through here if we don’t eat any more food today. Even you may be able to get through, Nell. Then we can try some of that neat grass over there”. So, we didn’t eat any more and that afternoon we gave it a try. First Vinny went through, then Seamus. I had to really tuck in my tummy and slowly, painfully, squeeze through. Vinny and Seamus were already running and jumping in the new grass.

We walked around eating and enjoying the day. We heard some strange sounds, and we walked toward them, going through a hole in a fence. There were two big animals with long legs and long tails, who said they were called 'horses'. “Come with us and we’ll show you some good grass and bushes,” they said. We hung out with them for awhile, until we heard a car and saw Bonnie drive up. How did she figure out where we were? She kept going, so we ran and hid. We weren’t ready to go back or leave our new friends!

Oh, no! Dogs were everywhere, barking & chasing us! They kept showing their teeth – they looked really mean. We had to get out of there before they ate us! So we ran and ran, then ran some more. Up & up the hill. There were lots of trees with low branches and lots of grass.

We kept going up and it started to rain. There was a lot of noise that hurt our ears and bright flashes of light that hurt our eyes. Seamus and Vinny were scared, but I had seen and heard this before, just not as loud. We went up more and found some caves to hide in that kept us dry. Our feet were wet – oooh , I hate that! The noise and flashing went on all night, then for the next few days. Just when we got dry, it would start raining again, and we would have to run to another cave. We could hear lots of dog sounds, but we didn’t see any.

   This was kinda fun though! We walked and ate, then walked and ate some more. We could go as far as we wanted – we were free! Seamus and Vinny complained some about missing their friends, but I could tell they were enjoying their adventure. If it hadn't been for the rain and noise and bright lights every few days, it would have been perfect. A few days, it was really windy, and we thought we might blow right off that hill, but we didn’t.

Then, one day, after we had been free a long time, we were climbing around the rocks and having a great time. Seamus was showing off--as usual--and he got on a big piece of rock. He tried jumping up and couldn’t reach the next rock. Then he tried to jump back down, but it was too far. I told him to stay, because he might break a leg. Vinny and I walked away, hoping he would find a way to follow us, but he couldn’t. He started crying “Naaaaaaa, naaaaaaa!”. We couldn’t leave him there. Then Vinny started crying, and I couldn’t help it – I started crying too. We left only long enough to eat and drink during the day, but we didn’t know how to feed Seamus. We cried all night and the next night and the night after that. We heard some people calling out sometimes, and we yelled back. They were even trying to sound like us, which would have been funny if we weren’t so scared. We think we even heard Bonnie’s voice.

On the third day (I think), we heard a noise in the bushes and saw a man and a boy walking toward us. We ran and hid. Seamus started to cry again. The boy climbed down some rocks and walked up to Seamus, who tried to run. The boy grabbed him and lifted him up to where the man was. The boy almost fell. The man took Seamus and tied something to his collar and started to lead him down the hill. Vinny began to follow him and I tried to tell him to stay, but he kept going after Seamus. I called out to them, but they still kept going. They didn’t seem to be scared. After a time, I didn’t hear them any more. I was alone and I missed those little boys! So I started down the hill.

Such a commotion down there! There were 2 more people – a woman and a girl. They were making a big fuss over Seamus and Vinny, then me. They had tied things to our collars, so we couldn’t get away. Then Bonnie showed up – crying, I think. Don’t know why. Had she been stuck on a big rock too? She put us in cages that smelled like dogs – phooey!! – and took us back to her home.

 For the next few days, we were kept in our stalls, except when Bonnie was around. She gave us water, branches full of leaves and some grain. We even got some alfalfa – yum! When we were in the yard, I looked toward the hill and tried to figure out how to get out again, but I couldn’t find a way this time. After awhile, I stopped trying. Then we were let out every day early in the morning until it got dark. There was plenty of grass and low tree limbs. Even the dogs didn’t seem so scary any more.

Things are pretty nice here, and I can tell that Bonnie really loves us. She gives us love and food and tries to build us things to play on. We think we want to stay here for a long time!