I was pretty surprised the first time I was chewed out – no pun intended (you’ll get this eventually, I promise) – for expressing this long-held and apparently errant belief.
It doesn’t help much that the people “in the know” have been battling the stereotype for quite a while, so they tend to get a little testy and short-tempered about the spreading and proliferation of misinformation and misconceptions.
In fact, I find it hard to restrain myself (now that I am one of the “enlightened ones”) from correcting others when they trot out (oh, another pun!) the old, tired cliché. I even bit my tongue during a brainstorming session at work where it came up – because the first rule of brainstorming is that you don’t judge, correct, or otherwise trample on the ideas of others.
But then Alice mentioned it in her blog post a couple days ago, and I knew I could be silent no longer! I mean, she’s a pretty popular blogger, the potential for prolonging the proliferation of this particular piece of pop-trivia is just staggering.
So here goes – prepare to have your world turned upside-down:
GOATS DO NOT EAT EVERYTHING, AND IN FACT ARE REALLY QUITE PICKY!
There. Now you know.
What goats are is destructive. They will chew anything they can reach. The list of things they will swallow, however, is apparently pretty limited. A goat’s notorious pickiness is apparently the bane of many a goatkeeper.
Anyhow. I just needed to get that off my chest.
Also, this is what happens when you say “yes” to marrying a guy who grew up on a goat farm (and has the 4H Champion Herdsman awards to prove it). So really, you’ve been informed, and warned!
Well, I’m glad to hear that I haven’t been referring to my dog as a goat inaccurately… she does love to destroy (most recently, the scarf that I’ve been teaching my sister how to knit. Damnit. I haven’t figured out how to tell her that we have to start over…) but really isn’t much for eating. Silly goatdog.