After a long-anticipated wait and media hype about the unaffordability of hiring goats to clean grassy areas in California, many people in Santa Cruz, myself included, gave up the hope to see goats this year chewing away unruly yellow bushes along the two sides of the Neary Lagoon wood ramp. In addition, the City Parks and Recreation Department kept unusually quiet about any possibilities.
July 10, I went to the Lagoon for my normal Monday walk, and was pleasantly surprised by the sight of hundreds of goats already munching at the end of the ramp's right-side. I took several deep breaths of familiar goat smells, and marveled at those efficient and content grass cleaners. "They managed to settle on a price," a smiling man in a wheelchair told me. The same evening, I shared the news with both Paul and Leni, and resolved to take her there after the Boys and Girls Club this week, in case those goats would complete their mission ahead of schedule.
We eventually made it late yesterday afternoon, having waited a long time for Leni to get her cherry slush treated by the club at the 7-Eelven at Laurel and Chestnut. To my slight disappointment, she was not as interested as I had hoped. She just charged forward along the ramp from one end to the other, and then turned to the concrete ramp on the lagoon. Understandably, she was more fascinated by ducks and other waterfowls.
After counting more than 100 of them in a short stretch, Leni changed her mind and wanted to double back to revisit goats, instead of exiting from the other end of the concrete ramp. Maybe the observation of waterfowl sharpened her sense of animal appreciation. She was in no hurry to leave, but lingering to see goats drinking and dueling, or little kids and lambs crying for their mothers. She was reluctant to leave the scene after 7:00 pm when it was getting dark with an encroaching fog.
It dawned on me that Leni's change of heart had a lot to do with up-close and personal experience. We tend to dismiss people or events when not directly involved or invested. If only we come a little closer, more details and relevant features will be revealed. Being an eight-year-old, Leni is easy to cross that line, willing to accept those working goats like family members. Since she can do it, why not us?
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