Goats

When I was about five years old my older brother and I were playing baseball in the backyard. The yard was in between the house and a fenced pasture. In the fenced pasture were two goats we owned – a male and a female. We were having lots of fun and then guess what? The ball was hit over the fence and into the pasture. My brother told me to climb over the fence and get the ball. (Being older and wiser he did not volunteer to go. I think he knew what might happen.)

Well, I climbed over the fence and jumped into the pasture. I found the ball and started back to climb over the fence and into the backyard. All of a sudden, the male goat ran into me. I thought he was being friendly but soon found out he was “butting” me. And the goat kept butting me over and over and over (you get the point!). Well, my brave brother said, “Throw me the ball!” He knew what was important. The goat kept butting me and I could not get out. Next, my brother threw the bat at the goat just barely missing me! When that failed to solve the emergency (at least to me it was an emergency), he ran into the house. Where in the world was he going? Was he going to the restroom? (I know I could about now.) Getting a drink of water? Turning on the TV? (We didn’t have computers, cell phones, or the internet).

Well, a minute later my mom came running out. She reached over the fence and pulled me out and into the backyard. Hallelujah! What a mom!! She came to the rescue just like Wonder Woman except she did not use her lasso – she saved that for Tom. Moms are really good at helping you get out of trouble. Well that was one of my first adventures with animals.

I didn’t realize it at the time but the situation could have turned out much worse than just having a few bruises on my backside.  A day of fun quickly turned into a nightmare for a five-year-old boy.  A better decision for me before jumping over the fence to retrieve the ball would be to get some sage advice from my mom.  Sometimes as adults we think we have to act now.  Here’s some advice I heard from numerous people.

Instead of “Just don’t stand there, do something” turn it around to “Just don’t do something, stand there”. Plan ahead. Think ahead.