A man with a bow and arrow, I suppose, or perhaps a bow and arrows managed to stop a dog attack on a goat herd that lives in a comfy little goat hangout between Phelan and Calder in Beaumont. I say suppose because I am not really sure from this story on the Beaumont Enterprise online edition. Perhaps if I paid the Enterprise king’s ransom to read the whole story I would be more enlightened. I don’t know that for sure, maybe the story is just a wee bit unclear. But that is the enormous crap shoot you take when a newspaper opens what is known as a “pay wall.” Don’t get me started on all that, though.
I love this goat herd. I first noticed it about five years ago driving by on Phelan Boulevard, a pretty well-traveled thoroughfare in the middle of western Beaumont. Calder Avenue is on the other side of the goat “farm.” Calder is itself a busy street in more places than others. The part that forms a boundary for the goat-plex isn’t all that busy. However, those two streets combined are, presumably busy enough for a vicious dog or dogs to transit in search of some fresh cabrito.
One or more of the hurricanes we had forced goat owner Sam Parigi to move the herd. An Enterprise story mention a lot of folks began to miss seeing the goats. I know I did. Nevertheless, the goats returned.
I went by there a month or so ago and took some pictures with my then new camera — now in New Jersey allegedly being repaired from a tumble in my recent trip to Missouri — of the herd. I found that Parigi has built the goats what look like a very comfy stable, or goat-i-minium. But I also noticed the owner, who also is a big real estate person in this town, has a “for sale” sign up on the fabled herd. If Parigi is trying to sell the land, the herd or the land and the herd, I wonder what will become of the goats? Cabrito? Or perhaps the more appropriate term would be “chevon.”
It would be ashamed to see the goat herd hundreds of drivers including myself have come accustomed to glancing at every day while driving by. The almost comical creatures bring, no doubt, a lot of smiles to a lot of people and the goats somehow make it seem all is right with the world just with their presence.
Alas, nothing stays the same but Congress.
Hat tip to the fellow who managed to dispatch the attacking dogs with his trusty bow and arrow. I don’t much like killing dogs but I like less, dogs attacking the Phelan-Calder Goat Herd.
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