Loretta, a goat of distinction, never got the gate. : A Grown-Up Kid
Loretta is not just any old goat. Now 7 (quite elderly for a goat), she’s a French Alpine with a beautiful coat called cou b. She’s intelligent and friendly. And she’s got a singularly remarkable goatee under her chin, and tattoos in both ears.
Back when she was a kid, Loretta really cut quite a swath. In the realm of “goat gliterati,” she’s done it all. During the first two years of her life, she won such notable triumphs as first place among more than 60 others at the American Goat Society’s National Show in Del Mar. Dairy goats are shown for conformation, wherein judges try to select potential breeding stock--looking for such things as correctness in breed type, and overall bearing of the animal. The “season,” which runs from March to September each year, allows goat devotees the opportunity to compete nearly every weekend. Loretta, whose registered name is Rebel Ridge Brandy Mist, logged her two demanding years on the circuit in open divisions and has the enviable distinction of never having “gotten the gate” (being excused), an honor most of us would love to claim. “She was always in the ribbons,” says her owner, Diane Pitzler of Chino.
At that time, Loretta was part of a herd of 30 other goats belonging to Pitzler, who with her husband was then part of a cooperative that was to produce milk for a cheese factory. It was “a lot of work,” says Pitzler--the goats had to be milked every day and the kids bottle-fed. But then the venture fell through, and she decided to let them go, eventually selling all but two to good homes. Loretta, who was one of triplets (a single birth is rare for goats) was sold with her siblings for dairy duty to a family with seven children. She was, however, eventually returned to Pitzler and is now officially retired.
Many an unsuspecting parent have purchased a kid as a pet, often for their own kids--and it’s true that they’re cute, comical and mischievous, and that they positively bounce with surplus energy. Pitzler tracked her adoptions for three years, though, and found that none of the kids lasted a year with families who originally wanted them as pets.
Most people are uninformed about what’s in store, and they find out the hard way. A kid gets larger quickly. That adorable trick of being butted by a 25-pound youngster is not nearly so sweet when you (or your child) are butted by the same animal 125 pounds later.
And goats love to be on their hind legs, getting at what’s just out of reach. It’s almost impossible to confine them because they’re adept at gate latches and possess a sixth sense about any open escape route. They’re very social and like to come in the house, too, with or without an invitation. They are over, under and through any form of restraint, including stepping through the cloth roof of a convertible.
They can also be picky eaters, despite their reputation for eating boot heels and barrel staves. They’re browsers by nature--rather than grazers, like sheep and horses--and will devour trees, shrubs, flowers (they love roses, thorns and all), just about anything, before touching a single blade of grass or, heaven forbid, weeds. When they’re young, they’re limited by how high they can reach as well as a small appetite, but in six months, Pitzler warns, your backyard could become a veritable desert, barren of any life save the goat.
Should you be too harsh or hasty in judgment of a goat’s mischief, keep in mind that his or her main objective, always, is to get to the top, an admirable trait to which we all can certainly aspire. Unless it’s your convertible. Loretta, you’re not a kid anymore.
EVENTS
July 27: Continental Balinese Cat Club Show, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Municipal Auditorium, Riverside, (818) 349-2220. . . . Golden West Buckskin Assn. Horse Show, 8:30 a.m. to about 5 p.m., Chino Junior Fairgrounds, Chino, (714) 627-1970. . . . The International Cat Show at Anaheim, second and final day, presented by the Garden Cat Club Inc., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Anaheim Convention Center, (714) 999-8950. . . . Santa Barbara Kennel Club Dog Show and Obedience Trial, all-breed show and trial, 8 a.m. to about 5 p.m., including a special exhibit organized by The Dog Museum of America, “The Iditarod: Sled Dog Racing in the North,” Robertson Field, UC Santa Barbara, (818) 440-9439.
Aug. 1-3: California Coast Horse Show, 8 a.m. to about 5 p.m., Huntington Beach Central Park Equestrian Center, (619) 753-0431. . . . Equestrian Trails Inc. National Convention Horse Show with Gymkhana, English and Western classes all three days, 7:30 a.m. to completion of judging, Earl Warren Showgrounds, Santa Barbara. Showgrounds, (805) 687-0766; English and Western, (619) 247-6703 or (818) 346-9149; Gymkhana, (818) 336-6913 or (213) 862-3421.Aug. 3: Whea Western Horse Show, 8 a.m. to about 5 p.m., Paddock Riding Club, 3919 Rigali Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 662-3523.
