Veterinarian’s Home Has Menagerie of Pets to Love, but Pygmy Goats Are Her Favorites

Visiting Dr. Lorrie Blackburn at her home in Orange is like entering an animal compound, and most of all, the guests should fancy pygmy goats, friendly little animals that look perpetually pregnant.

Of course, she also has horses, a monkey, a squirrel, parrots, chickens, dogs, a three-legged cat and sometimes coyotes and rattlesnakes, but her strongest feeling is for her 12 pygmy goats. Quillie Acres Susie is her favorite.

“Susie’s a grand champion so we no longer take her to shows,” said Blackburn, a UC Davis veterinary school graduate who works out of her home in the wooded and hilly Orange Park Acres section of the city.

The veterinarian mostly treats goats and sheep, many of them belonging to 4-H club members, although she ministers to all animals. And she is one of only 19 certified pygmy goat judges in the country.

Blackburn is also president of the National Pygmy Goat Assn., a group of 1,500 members who own 9,000 pygmy goats and compete in 200 goat judging shows a year to promote the breed. One show was recently held at the Orange County Fair, although Blackburn said there are only about 50 pygmy goats in all of Orange County.

Although the goats are not generally raised as pets, she said, “We have people who housebreak them and let them roam through the house.” For people to own a pygmy goat, “they must have enough room and not value their landscaping. The goats browse and eat everything on the ground,” Blackburn added.

Besides being a delight to look at--the animals stand 16 to 22 inches high and weigh about 70 pounds--most are friendly and fun to play with, said Blackburn, the mother of two children who are the reason she keeps her practice at home.

Acknowledgments--Karen (Becky) R. Saltzer, 15, a Villa Park High School sophomore, was appointed to a four-year term as a youth commissioner of the 15-member Orange County Juvenile Justice Commission to act as advocate for young people involved with the juvenile justice system . . . Bonnie Castrey, 43, of Huntington Beach, a registered nurse who later became an arbitrator-mediator primarily in labor matters, was named Woman of Achievement by West Orange County Business and Professional Women . . . .

Rae Langdale, 49, knows a lot about the benefits of physical fitness, having lost 112 pounds of weight. At one time she worked as a certified athletic trainer at Orange Coast College, patching up wounded football players--one of them her son.

But today she’s extolling the benefits of a career as athletic trainer by teaching a one-of-a-kind, twice-weekly night class at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana. The class is being offered through the Regional Occupational Center to prepare young people and those looking for a new career for work in the growing physical-fitness field.

“People are getting more interested in improving their bodies and condition,” she said, “and that means physical therapists, health clubs and team athletic trainers need people to help them.”