The child continues to amaze!
Yesterday, at the Milwaukee County Zoo, we went to the farm animal "barnyard" and bought our quarter's worth of goat food and proceeded into the goat pen. It was very large, the goats was not incredibly agressive due to the number of kids happily feeding each Baa-a-a. Julia was so excited to see goats up close and was braver than she has been at our little zoo in Madison because the goats were mellow. She is so very interested in animals but apart from bugs, she is usually so scared of them that she cannot touch them. She has made some strides this summer petting my sister's cat and then picking up Jaden's kittens -- some truly unthreatening animals -- but offered the goat food which she loved getting from the gum-like machine. Then we coaxed and coaxed until finally she put her hand out and fed a very gentle goat. I was ready to take that goat home -- no, only kidding. It was wonderful. We had to coax her again and again to do it over and over and I suspect that we will have to do the same a few times before she is ready to feed them on her own, but she was brave and she did it.
I am so proud of her and proud that mama captured it on film, even though I will have to upload later as I am having some trouble doing it now.
Another step, small but significant because it was about her fears!
1 comment:
I have very ambivalent feelings about animals that I don't know/don't have an attachment to. Basically creatures that aren't house/garden trained, like my late rabbits and my late cat.
And over the past five years I have had a fear of dogs (except, again for dogs I know, like my friend's Siberian huskies and her dear little whippet). A few days ago a dog jumped over a brick fence - a perfectly decent and obedient dog - but his movement was so very unpredictable.
Now goats. They are such beautiful creatures. I like them better on farms where they have so much ground. The nanny goats are really nice, the billies I am not always so trusting of.
(They are on one of my uncle's farms. And they are bred for eating and more breeding. Usually not many children or adults come to see them).
And we are told, very strictly, NOT to feed the ducks, because then they will become dependent on human beings. Naturally, they are hunters.
It is good to see the strides Julia has made with the cats especially. Now goats (and other bigger creatures) are quite unpredictable, and they can move into the flight/fight zone.
I remember also feeding a very bouncy kangaroo which was in a nature park.
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