The Story of Cain and Abel On Saturday, May 27, 2006, Dan and I went to a farm in North Western Mass to pick up a pair of Nubian kids.  We had been told that they hadn't been handled much, so we expected they would be a little frightened of us but we already had a plan as to how to make friends once we got them home.  The owners of the farm lured all the goats to the barn with some grain and set about catching our two boys.  We put their kid collars on and got them into the back of our van.  We drove home, stopping at the feed store on the way home for a bag of grain.  In the car we decided to call them Cain and Abel since one seemed to be trouble and the other was very calm.  Cain had the green collar and more color on his face, Abel had the blue collar and a white spot on his side. We reached our house around 5:15pm and parked down near the barn.  We opened the back and pulled the boys out by their leads and then set about trying to pick them up.  Both boys were fighting hard to get away, pulling on their collars.  Suddenly Abel's collar came open and Abel took off running across the lawn and into the woods.  I managed to pick up Cain and brought him to the pen we had readied for the goats.  Dan watched over Cain while I went to find Abel but there was no sign of him anywhere.  Cain, who was still wearing his collar and lead slipped under the gate of the pen, past Dan, and took off running.  He initially went into the woods behind the house but then doubled back down the neighbors driveway and across the street.  I followed as closely as I could but lost him in the woods across the street behind another neighbors house.  At least we got to finally meet the neighbors!  We called Animal Control to let them know we had two young goats missing. On Sunday morning we got a call from our neighbors across the street, one of the goats was in their garage.  We rushed over and found Abel hiding in the corner.  We picked him up and carried him back home.  We put him in a dog crate and set about fixing the gate up with chain link.  Satisfied that the gate was secure we put Abel into the pen.  With us watching from the gate Abel found a small gap between the ground and the bottom of our raised barn and slipped right under the barn!  He stayed under the barn for nearly an hour while we tried to coax him out.  Finally I went to call the people who sold him if they had any idea how to get him out.  While I talked to them Abel popped out the front of the barn and stood in the open yard. The woman from the farm told me to try chips since they liked them as treats.  So, out I went into the yard with a bag of chips.  At first Abel seemed interested and came close enough for me to throw him one.  He picked it up but didn't eat it and eventually dropped it.  He backed away from me but stayed in the yard.  Everytime I stepped towards him he took 5 steps away so I sat down on the ground and tried to get him to come to me.  He was crying out so I made a goat noise to him.  This got his attention and he started going back and forth in front of me so I kept making the noise.  Suddenly I realized that he was looking for the goat behind me and didn't think it was me making the noise.  I stopped but too late, Abel took off into the woods behind me in search of the mystery goat.  We caught up to him on the road but he slipped into the yard of the neighbors across the street and down into the woods. A few hours later we got another call, Abel was under the neighbors' deck.  Again we rushed over but Abel got away by jumping over our crouched neighbor. Monday came and no sightings all morning.  At this point we figured the boys had met with the business end of some predator and we were very sad, but it was our anniversary so we went out to a movie and dinner.  When we arrived home, there was Abel, right by the barn.  I went around the back and he came towards me a few steps.  However, Dan came out the back door and Abel decided that two people was too much and took off into the woods behind the house. ,br>Tuesday dawned and again, no sightings all morning.  Then in the mid afternoon our neighbor behind us drove up and told us that they had seen a goat in their yard.  I took a bowl of food up to their yard to try to get the little guy to come in.  At this point we had decided that chasing them was useless so we were going for a make friends strategy.  It was for nought though because the boy didn't come back to their yard. By Wednesday we were sure we'd never see Cain again since he hadn't been sighted at all and we weren't holding out much hope for Abel either.  We were pretty bummed out.  Then at 2:30pm I got a call from Animal control.  One of the goats had been found and caught off of Royalston Road.  I went right down to the police department and there was Abel.  I brought him home and put him in the now improved security pen.  He stayed! When Dan got home from work we went to Wal*Mart and lamented the loss of Cain.  Since no one had seen him since Saturday we were sure he was a gonner.  We took solace in that we had at least gotten Abel back.  Upon our return home there was a message on the phone, Cain was found! We went down to the station again and met the woman from animal control.  She took us to a house off of Royalston Road.  The people there had him on a leash and joked about wishing no one had come to claim him.  We thanked them profusely for catching our little guy and took Cain home. Now Cain and Abel are reunited and securely penned up.  It ends up that Cain is friendly and adventurous, Abel is more laid back and withdrawn, although he does like a good neck scratching from time to time.  Both goats are used to us now and like their safe little pen.  Even with the gate open they prefer to be in the pen.  We love our little trouble makers! Back to the Firedove Main Page