I wasn’t quite done yesterday with what I had to say when Alys cut me off, saying that I’d exceeded the day’s 500-word limit. I didn’t know that there was a word limit, or that I’d exceeded it. I asked, and was told, that I could start anew today. So here I am.

I had something in common with Tinni, besides the fact that both of us were the only male animals on this place, and this was that, like him, I was neutered. The term used to describe castrated horses is gelded.

Essentially, humans decide when they can take away our manhood. We don’t get to decide when we can take away their manhood. This is not right. In fact, it’s wrong.

It’s painful, for all male animals, to have to go through this. There’s just one way of doing this with horses – the veterinarian lops off their balls. Used to be (I was told) that the veterinarians, in gelding horses, didn’t use any

Ranger, again

anesthetic. With goats, there are two ways of going about this. The first is, the veterinarian lops off our balls. The second is, the goat owner puts bands around the top of the scrotal sacks, eliminating the blood flow. The balls then shrivel up and fall off.

Veterinarians say that banding is inhumane and cruel. Goat owners say that lopping off the balls is inhumane and cruel. Let me tell you this, both methods leave a lot to be desired. There is a lot of pain, no matter what. And along with this comes hormonal changes.

Me and Rover, he was my buddy, we had our balls lopped off by Dr. Ferris, who was then our veterinarian. I didn’t think much of her – she attempted to disbud me and I was left with a scur, a partial horn. She repeatedly told Alys that banding would be more painful than ,ah hem, removing the testes. Alys finally decided that Dr. Ferris, having graduated from Colorado State University, and having studied livestock management, knew what she was talking about.

I remember that Pete wanted to fry up Rover and my balls, but Dr. Ferris cautioned against this, saying that the chemicals in the testes were bad for human consumption.

I felt terrible after, both mentally and physically. I (as well as Rover) had envisioned becoming bucks and being used for breeding purposes. Well, we both had just one go at it. This was with Peaches, a goat Alys and Pete purchased from Matt Shaw.

Peaches had been around the block a few times, so to speak, so we were not her first mates. She knew what to do, and this made what we had to do quite easy. And I must say, Rover and I were gentlemen.

A few months later, Peaches gave birth to two males and one female. The female, named Teslin, after a lake, was my offspring. She was quite beautiful, very doe-like in appearance. Alys didn’t want to part with her, but otherwise, would have also been stuck with the two males. Pete said we didn’t have the room for three goats, so the pair gave all three to some neighbors who had them for many, many, years.

Oh oh. I’ve again exceeded my word count. And I have so much more to say.

Alys is just going to have to give me more caprine time.

Next: 293. 10/26/22: Almost