Ramón, Our Nigerian Dwarf Buck Extraordinaire

(10 pm – promoted by ek hornbeck)

One aspect of life that gives me hope is the strong effect places, events, animals and people can have on us human beings. I became particularly aware of this phenomenon 13 years ago when I started practicing a Raja Yogic meditation system simultaneously with beginning work as a counselor at a treatment center for children who had committed sexual offenses.

Crossposted at Pockets of the Future  

crossposted at dkos

For almost two years my weeks consisted of pretty much the same experience. I went to the physically, emotionally and spiritually draining prison-like atmosphere of the treatment center four days a week where I was surrounded by people filled with despair, anger, hatred and bitterness. By the end of the four days, my tank was on empty and my attitude and my view of the world were both negative. Then for the next three days I dove into my spiritual practice and spent time surrounded by people who radiated the higher qualities of spirituality. Through this and through having the time to focus on my own inner connection to the divine within, I became recharged. This accidental see-saw experiment vividly revealed to me how much we can pull each other up and down. With the world being in an increasingly negative phase these days, we can remain hopeful with the knowledge that eventually there will be people who can pull it back up.

Our current leadership, media, internet, radio and television programming as well as corporate advertising and attitudes have us hemorrhaging character and goodwill. It is easy to find fights to get into and insults to hurl in such an atmosphere. It is not so easy, however, to find people who draw our higher qualities out of us and inspire us and pull us up. It is imperative, therefore, that we draw to us as best we can people, places, ideas and events that actually raise our spirits and contribute to our collective upward movement on a spiritual path.

On our homestead this principle even extends to the animals that come to us and to the plant life that we develop. When we consider bringing in a new animal, we of course look at qualities like conformation, breeding, milk production and the various other qualities the animal possesses. But the deciding factor for us is always comes from our sense of what kind of vibratory field the animal gives off. We look for an evolving animal that wants human contact. We want curious animals that are eager to learn and grow. We want animals that can live in symbiosis with the existing atmosphere and personalities already here on the homestead.

The first livestock we purchased years ago was our Nigerian Dwarf goats, a mother and her two does. They ended up being delivered to us in the middle of the night by folks who couldn’t quite find their way around. The people who sold them to us were nice but we eventually figured out that they were culling from a larger herd of somewhat ordinary goats that were somewhat neglected and under socialized. We did not know much about purchasing livestock at the time, nor did we know about any developments that would be particular to our new goats. With time we began to perceive stubbornness in the mother goat, for instance, and a sort of coarseness. Later we encountered other Nigerian Dwarf goats that just seemed more conscious and evolved than the goats in our little herd. Plus as our homestead began to fill up with other animals, we found our goats to be lacking a little bit comparatively. They didn’t quite fit in. This coupled with the fact that our new homestead has pasture and not much to browse on meant that our goats really didn’t fit in. We started talking about selling them and starting over with higher quality goats sometime in the future.

However, about a month and half ago we visited an alpaca farm that also turned out to have some Nigerian Dwarf goats on it. These goats were not only registered and but actual descendants from the original herd brought to the States some years ago. Every goat had such a nice energy and personality. We really liked them. Leslie and I began talking again about the possibility of selling off our herd and purchasing a couple of bred does from this farm.

Then we met their Ramón. Ramón was a six month old buck with a golden color and a sweet disposition. We all immediately felt a connection to him. As soon as he walked up to us from within his pen of other eligible males, we all burst into smiles. He had been bottle fed and so thoroughly socialized that he was very affectionate and sought out human companionship. We bought him a couple of weeks later and brought him home to mate with our does. Since that time he has completely transformed our goat herd as our does are now friendly and just plain out better.

Ramón has made his corner of our homestead a happy place. For me he is one of the many beings in my life that brings a smile to my face and a warm feeling to my heart when I see him. He still makes us all laugh.