What weird animals have been in your shop

[arkie]

That is a Dwarf or Pygmy. It appears to be a doe. Does have horns too, and even beards. We have three does. The "Full-size" tend to be about half again as tall if not more. The pygmies are built stockier than the standards usually.

 

Looks like you and Frosty are spot-on with the goat ID.

 

"She" jumped up on every big rock, table, cart...all around the shop and house.  That made the goat VERY unwelcome VERY fast.  Glad it moved on.

[nankbrown1227]

Not very unusual, but the only animal I have seen in my shop this far is an old stray dog that straggled in over a year ago. He was very friendly and rather large, I suspect he has some German Shepard in him along with a little Labrador. But the funny thing is my buddy came over later that evening and the dog was still with me, sleeping in the corner by the coal pile and when asked about him I said " don't know who he belongs to , but he will leave sooner or later" well after a year the name has kind of stuck with him and "sooner is curled up on the couch beside me right now. I don't think he has any plans on leaving anytime soon though !

[eseemann]

I have a resident carpet snake around the forge and a possum which makes itself at home on shelving above the rafters. I don't mind either - especially the snake which helps kerb the rat problem.
We live beside an adandoned farm and the old irrigation pipes are a haven for rats.
And you don't want them near your car. They're attracted to warm dark spaces and entered through the air cleaner intake. This is what happened to the air cleaner:
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Big $$$ in repair bills. Some animals are welcome around my shed ..and some are not.![cdata[>

 

 

 

Ausefire,

A buddy of mine had a good number of the wires messed up in a new-ish 2007 dodge with Hemi motor. The insulation was some kind of eco-loving soy based polymer, the varmints did love it!

[eseemann]

That's a Nigerian Dwarf. Are you sure it's a buck, did you look? No need for a close exam, they have packages you could carry softballs in. Sweet little goats it was probably looking for a person it knows or maybe just curious. Goats are VERY curious and smarter than most folk think.

 

A dog could've chased it out of it's yard, they do an often fatal "blind linear panic" when chased. Running goats to death is pretty common. You might ask the neighbors who owns or raises goats if it happens again.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Frosty,

Here in North Alabama the land is thick with the Nigerian Dwarf goat. I guess that is because of their easy going nature.

[eseemann]

Well, yes, they are responsible for most snake bite deaths in the eastern states.....

Ausfire,

When a snake gets named "Death Adder" it is a good indication you want nothing to do with it. In Florida, growing up, I had always heard about Coral Snakes. The Coral Snake is basicly a cobra with really small teeth. If it could manage to break the skin you are in a world of neuro-toxic hurt but gloves and pants will protect you. Your snakes seem to be a bit more dangerous. I have respect for you folks living with all the wonder things in nautre that want to kill you.

[ianinsa]

Really toxic snakes are one thing but the cobra 'cuzzies' Mozambican and Rinkhals that can spit venom (at your eyes) up to 10 feet can ruin an otherwise good day :)

[eseemann]

Ianinsa,

 

When I was a kid we had a tape (Betamax) of a show called Lights! Action! Africa! These two cinematographers (Alan and Joan Root) filmed spitting cobra's, got on the wrong side of a male hippo and invaded the privacy of some tree nesting birds. This was filmed in  Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. They filmed the spitting action of the cobra and I can see how that would take the luster off your day.
 

[ausfire]

 

Ausfire,
When a snake gets named "Death Adder" it is a good indication you want nothing to do with it. In Florida, growing up, I had always heard about Coral Snakes. The Coral Snake is basicly a cobra with really small teeth. If it could manage to break the skin you are in a world of neuro-toxic hurt but gloves and pants will protect you. Your snakes seem to be a bit more dangerous. I have respect for you folks living with all the wonder things in nautre that want to kill you.

 
Well, yes, we do have a few critters quite capable of killing you, but we only have two that will deliberately stalk you with that intent - and neither are likely to be in your shop. One is the shark and the other the estuarine crocodile (or 'saltie').
Most of our snakes, although highly venomous are more likely to retreat rather than be aggressive. I've only been bitten once and it was my stupid fault for catching the snake rather than letting it go its way. (It was a whip snake and not seriously venomous, though it did numb my arm for a while.)
But you know one of the nastiest animals we have is one of the smallest and my dog has been at the vet for two days now just hanging onto life. The female paralysis tick. The size of a grain of rice but so toxic it can knock a horse over. Dangerous to humans too.
Ticks like dry areas and the dog is always with me in the smithy so perhaps she picked it up from the dusty floor there. I can cope with snakes in the forge. You can see them, but ticks are sneaky.

[Smithy.Travis]

Hey Dogsoldat that sounds alot like me when I was ten. Anyway, the strangest thing to ever lirk in my ragtag shop was a half dozen or so desert geckos that fancies one corner of the area. So exciting I know!

[Glenn]

It must be getting close to cold weather cause a toad moved into the shop yesterday. Maybe he can put s hit out on the cricket that has been under the table somewhere.

[arkie]

Frosty,

Here in North Alabama the land is thick with the Nigerian Dwarf goat. I guess that is because of their easy going nature.

 

Are the Nigerian Dwarf goats there wild or domesticated?  If domesticated, used for milk or meat?  Most of the goats around us are a bit more slender.  We have a goat milk farm just up the road from us, but they aren't as big as this one was.  Yeah, they are pretty relaxed around strangers.  I almost couldn't get this one to go away  :(

[Frosty]

Remember the old Johnny Weismeiller(sp?) Tarzan movies? The tribesfolk had herds little goats? Back in the 20-30's people brought a number to the US but they were restricted from public ownership. The gvt had learned about introducing alien species without thought. Anyway, the folk trusted to breed them "university farms maybe?" started breeding them into two different strains. The Nigerian Dwarf is a milk goat and the African Pygmy is the meat version. Both tend to be sweet natured though the Pygmy is was bread to LIKE people and show it. Sometime around the 50's maybe? a few farms were allowed to start breeding them and not they're pretty widespread.

 

The Nigerian Dwarf is a more practical livestock breed being milk goats. The Pygmy is a "meat" goat but it takes just as long as a full size breed to grow to butchering size and even full grown they range around 50-55lbs. on the hoof. That's a lot of time effort and money to grow maybe 20-25lbs. of meat. Nigerians on the other hand produce about the perfect amount of milk for a family of four and goat's milk is FAR more nutritious than cow's milk. Around 4% butter fat for cow's milk and around 9-11% for goat's milk. The ice cream is to die for. Mmmmmmmmm.

 

City folk find out about Nigerian goats and how nutritious the milk is so they buy one or two. THEN they discover they don't produce milk unless they kid and most aren't likely to put the kids in the freezer so they often just turn them loose. some folk shouldn't be allowed to own any critters more advanced than yeast.

 

Little goats are good dairy producers and excellent 4H projects for the children. One of the BEST things about raising goats being; if they give you too much trouble you won't get in trouble for selling or eating your kids.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

Frosty, thanks for all the info on the goats.  Pretty interesting.  Maybe the goat at my place did come from the herd up the road after all...being a goat dairy farm.  Sounds like you might have raised goats at one time.  :)

[eseemann]

Are the Nigerian Dwarf goats there wild or domesticated?  If domesticated, used for milk or meat?  Most of the goats around us are a bit more slender.  We have a goat milk farm just up the road from us, but they aren't as big as this one was.  Yeah, they are pretty relaxed around strangers.  I almost couldn't get this one to go away  :(

 

I do not know what folks use them for around here but if you look at the Craigslist for Huntsville Al you you can see a a good number of goat related posts. I have also seen a good number of "fainting goats" that people keep as pets. 

The Craigslist post do mention dairy goats as well as Pygmy goats so I suspect they can be anything from pets to dairy to BBQ. 

 

Ernest

[Frosty]

Might have had a goat or two. Deb was raising Pygmy goats on a 40 acre hobby farm in the UP of Michigan when we met and she brought a few with her.

 

Deb, I, Buran and the herd  on goat rock.

 

Tinker and I, she's a couple weeks old

 

This is Buran, our first Pyr, in one of his favorite roles making babies safe and happy.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[eseemann]

That is a very good (fluffy) doggie!

[DSW]

Goats will climb on just about everything... LOL

[arkie]

That's a great picture of the kids climbing on the Pyrenees.. :)   They can be one very devoted, protective dog.

[Frosty]

I love dogs, especially the giant breeds and after living with Great Pyrenes for almost 17 years now I'm a devoted fan of the breed. Somewhere I have pics of kids sleeping on his back and they used him as a trampoline regularly. He loved every second. Pyres are especially devoted to babies of any kind, give one a human baby and it's amazing.

 

When Deb was breeding Pygmy goats actively we'd get families coming by to check them out regularly and bringing the children. We recommended they bring their kids to meet our kids so they could judge how gentle pygmy goats are with people, children especially. Well we'd be talking to the folks and they'd lose sight of a toddler as soon as they noticed panic would start to set in. The look on their faces when we told them not to worry Buran had them was priceless. Buran was always missing with the toddler, ALWAYS.

 

We'd take a look around the pasture for the BIG white lump of fur and head into the barn. Buran always herded them into the barn and a dry patch of straw. We usually found the baby sleeping in Buran's arms and Buran with the dopeyist look of adoration on his face. Babies were safer in our barn than their own beds. No parent felt worried after one look at the scene. It always made Buran sad when the baby's parents had to take them home.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Wroughton]

I guess i shouldn't be surprised theres more than one shop bear story. Some of us tend to live in the BOONIES.

Mine came around the corner of the shop while some after work beers were being had. Lots of swearing and spilt beer later the bear was swimming the river and away.
Marmots (our groundhog) are the worst and have excavated large chunks under my shop and surround buildings. The answer for both problems were my canine shop employees, Dewey and "the fuzz".

[arkie]

Neat story, Frosty.  I love the big old white mutts.  There are a lot of goat farmers around here and they use the Great Pyrenees exclusively to watch their herds.

[eseemann]

Frosty, 

 

I shudder to think of what would become of any fool that would threaten the goat or human babies around that dog. My Uncle had a Bull Mastiff named Rocky that kept the Coyotes on their side of the street. This dog was 180+lb of dopey loving dog. He would come and put his 12 lbs bowling ball head on your lab with this look of "Love Me!" in his eyes. We never had to worry about the house when he was alive. One day Rocky is sitting on the lawn eating a doe he had dragged up from the woods. Uncle Holt told me to get rid of the doe. I told him that I did not feel like come between Rock and his meal. 

 

Ernest

[Glenn]

A blacksnake came past the shop on the 14th of October. Very late in the season to see a snake. We got a photo just to prove it did happen LOL. Nice healthy snake about 1-1/4 inches in diameter and 4 feet or so long. He has been living near the shop for 2 years now.

 

 

[DSW]

Ok he's done modeling. Now forge a bracelet to match out of 1 1/4" bar. :D

[Jeff Amundson]

I'm glad I found this old thread, because this is WEIRD.

I opened my shop door and immediately smelled something dead. The last time that happened I found a mouse decomposing at the bottom of the main tube of my tire hammer. Nope. Still just one carcass there.

Following my nose I found this in my side draft hood.

The hood has plates that slide open on both ends, indoors and out, and a 12” chimney pipe with no cap outside. So how did a skunk get in there? Climb to the top and fall in? A prank by some 'friend'?

Believing my nose that he was dead, I grabbed some tongs to extract it. And this is where it got really weird. It was only half a skunk – the back half.

I've waited for a 'friend' to take credit, but no one has. My favorite theory is that an owl dropped a whole skunk and it was sliced in half when it hit the sharp edge of my chimney. Of course the owl returned to get the front half.

The shop never smelled of skunk, but I still get a whiff of death once in a while.