DIMINUTIVE and captivating, pygmy goats are invariably class clowns and escapology experts. Equally, they are hearty and relatively undemanding, which means that they frequently find favour with first-time animal keepers with small parcels of land. Provide a pygmy with shelter, playthings, a playmate (for they shouldn’t be kept alone), an ample dollop of hay, an unending supply of fresh water, plus a good mineral lick, and they will return the favour with hours of laugh-inducing antics. Fencing, however, should be considerably higher than Capra hircus themselves (who generally hit the measuring stick at about the same mark as a cocker spaniel) or bids for freedom are likely to become a nightmarishly regular occurrence.
Kept principally as pets, companions or to grace the show ring, their sanguine temperaments and stature mean that they can sometimes be found visiting the likes of care homes and hospices to provide a pick-me-up to the sick and the frail.
The Pygmy Goat Club (www.pygmygoatclub. org.uk) is a good first port of call for would-be owners of these pint-sized, sometimes clamorous fizz-bombs, which are descended from dwarf breeds, notably those hailing from West Africa and South Sudan. Once the chosen goats arrive, they certainly won’t be leaving in a hurry, as these devotees attest.
‘We call them outdoor dogs’
SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE smallholder Tanya Sheasby and her three sons, Sam, 14, Finlay, 12, and James, 10, who run The Little Farming Company, breed and train pygmy goats as therapy animals.
Denne historien er fra May 17, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 17, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
