From time to time, the goats of Ishtar’s Ark have one complaint: that they don’t get to go out as much as they would want to. We would if we could (after all, they’re very photogenic and Allis LOVES to jump on the rocks!), but with a full time job, seven canine youngsters and two equine teenagers in need of attention and stimulation, it’s hard to find the time to activate the goats as much as we would like to.

We try to let them out in the garden every day, which they love, but since they’re goats and eat just about anything (trees, flowers, horse food, dog food, dog bones - you name it!), they can never be left alone unsupervised, which limits their possibility of outings to mornings, siestas and evenings.

When we first got goats, we decided against sending out them off to pasture, wanting to keep them away from unnecessary parasites and such. Despite growing up within a protected area, however, Allis got her share of parasites anyway. When my nomad friend Aïssa heard about our mishaps this summer, she suggested we send out our goats with her nephew Mahamadu, who lives just a few blocks away and cares for his family’s animals. We decided on giving it a try, to see how realistic it was and how much the goats seemed to enjoy it.

Mahamadu’s brother Torodo came to pick them up at seven in the morning, and off they went. Not too many complaints on the way out, although the little ones cried, not knowing when their two milk machines would be back again.

When we came back from the office at noon, our goats were just heading back after half a day in the bush, having fed real bush feed together with a handful of other goats. As soon as Allis saw her human mommy Anette, however, she cried her heart out as rushed towards us. Oh my, if we only knew the tales she had to tell!

Normally, goats will spend the entire day out in the fields, being taken to the well at midday and then continued to graze until the sun goes down, but we decided to start off slowly, for the sake of the little ones.

Now if I thought our goats would enjoy spending half a day out in the bush, I did not keep in mind what a pampered life our princess Allis is accustomed to. No shade or water for five hours (just good food, male company and exercise!) - what were we thinking??

Soon enough, our little herd of four goats were happily reunited with their offspring within the walls of the Ark. The adults then spent the rest of the day sleeping in the shade close to their water; not crying out a single time in want of more food or exercise. Did this mean the pros outweighed the cons and that our two pampered goat ladies wanted to go back out and enjoy bush freedom the following day? Nope, not at all. We gave it one more day (which ended pretty miserably as the goats were delivered five hours later than expected, having been away from the little ones for eleven hours) before decided that goat daycare does not add much life quality to the lives of our goats, who are fully content checking out the horse bowls within the walls of Ishtar’s Ark.