There’s Goats in Them Hills

Every year around this time, The Goats come to my area of Laguna Beach. Of course they might actually live in Laguna Beach and never leave. But this is The Season when they bring their delightful little vegetation munching selves to the hills around my house. They’re here to help prevent another fire like the one in ’93 that decimated Canyon Acres, not to mention a great portion of Laguna Beach, a conflagration that barely missed my house.Misc 020It was our house back then, when the ex was captured on Channel 7 trying to save our street, which is right off Canyon Acres. I was at work in Newport Beach watching him on TV, freaking out about my cat, Para. Had he found her? He had. She was safe in his van along with our dogs, Suki and Salem, and a few hastily grabbed items. After parking the van in the lot off Third Avenue, he and a neighbor sneaked back through the police barrier to see what they could do. I never want to go through that again.

So back to the goats. Right now they’re up above the Lesser Hill, so named by me; it’s the one that parallels Laguna Canyon Road, a wonky paved lane that takes me around 30 minutes to hike, (not The Big Hill, which takes over an hour). There’s the three-foot high plastic orange fencing you could blow over with a breath strung between flimsy metal posts and behind it the goats masticating like mad. And making human sounds. There are a couple of YouTube videos devoted to this phenomena.

All in all the goats are a trip. I watched this one goat–not the one whose picture I’ve posted–lift himself onto his hind legs to get to some tasty leaves on the lower limbs of a tree and stand there chewing until he was done. No wobbling around, no struggling to balance like I do in Warrior Three. He just stood there perfectly poised. Munching until he was done.

Fergie and Jake were absolutely fascinated by the goats. I took them all the way up to the barrier and they just stood there staring.  Dogs Who Stare At Goats.

9 thoughts on “There’s Goats in Them Hills

  1. We have goats here, too (Egypt). I never imagined they’d be in CA canyons. They serve an important purpose though (your goats, not ours). I hope no fires come your way.
    Welcome to the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop. 🙂

  2. I love goats. They have the most beautiful eyes. Up here we have herds of cows that free range and are pretty good at keeping the brush down. Glad the goats are hard at work down your way. Fires are terrifying.

  3. Reminds me of the goats we had when we moved from Itimpi out into the nerther regions where I was to meet Frank. They were educating in their need for milk & butting at me whilst feeding them from the bottles.
    The are also wold goat in the hills at a place called Kakahi in NZ. Occasionally a friend will shoot one for the pot, & tan the hide for a mat on their “bach” hideaway. Love your description of their ability to stand on hind legs which they did to get to the bottles I held.

  4. People cause accidents in the narrows going up to Estes Park because they suddenly break for the mountain goats scaling the sides of the canyon. I can appreciate them, for sure, but would rather be smart about it and park the car before causing anyone to drive off into the ravine.

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