Sassy came straight toward me, finding me as if I had a homing beacon. She bleated her displeasure with me.
“I was only gone a day.” I rubbed her ears.
Joseph examined Anderson with such intensity that even I wondered what the cantankerous guy was thinking.
“Joseph, this is Anderson.”
Anderson waved.
My goat blinked.
“Is he going to hurt me?”
I considered. “Probably not, but don’t ever leave your shoes lying around.”
Anderson gave me a skeptical look. “Why would I take my shoes off while within reach of a goat?”
I was about to tell him about the time— Nope. No point. “I’m just warning you.”
“Okay.” He waved to Joseph. “Nice to meet you.”
My goat continued to stare.
“This is Sassy. She’s—” I continued rubbing her ears.
“A suck?”
“Well, she is that. She loves attention. Can never get enough of it.”
“May I pet her?”
“Of course. She’d love it. I’m just going to check on the others.” I left him to it as I checked the barn for any stragglers. “Come on, Lucinda. You can’t hide. You need to go out into the pasture while the weather’s still good.”
Stubborn goat stood facing the wall. If she couldn’t see me, her reasoning was, then I couldn’t see her.
This was a game we frequently played.
I made my way over to her.
She gazed up at me.
“I might have a treat for you.”
Reluctantly, she followed.
I scooped some oats into my palm when we passed the feeder.
She happily took some from my palm. When we emerged into the brilliant sunlight, she headed over to the pasture with the others.
Anderson was still scratching Sassy’s ears.
“I warn you—she’ll never tire of that.”
He grinned. “I think I don’t mind. They’re—” He gazed over the field. “Precious.”
“Yeah. You can see how, after I came home, I couldn’t consider leaving them.”
“Even to Mila?”
