If you want to see a terrified toddler scale his mom in a single bound while holding his 17 month old brother, just come with us to the petting zoo. The blood curdling scream is another highlight of the experience you don’t want to miss. The high pitched screech will not only leave the teeny, tiny hairs on the back of your neck standing at attention, it will leave your ears ringing for at least 3 1/2 minutes.
I only had the best of intentions when I held Reichen’s hand and walked him into the pen full of goats a few weeks ago. I just knew he would love it and to make sure, I even bought him a couple handfuls of food to feed the four legged animals. I had no idea as soon as we set one tippy tippy toe inside the pen, the manic mammals would rush us.
The latch had not even locked before the goats gobbled every pellet in Reichen’s little hand and started muscling him for more. I am putting it kindly when I tell you my 2 year old toddler totally freaked. Totally. He was screaming, flailing, and clutching for me to save him. He wanted out of that pen and and he wanted out of that pen NOW!!!
I was desperately trying to rescue Reichen, while tryingnot to drop Latham, while trying to maneuver all three of us out of the petting pen when it happened: a goat escaped. The farm animal decided to make a run for it and the three of us were following in its footsteps when a large man wearing a weird hat stopped all of us. He appeared out of no where and shoved the goat, me, and my two boys back in the pen. The grounds keeper later said it was the only way to keep the situation under control. He may have been right about the goat, but the situation regarding my boys was anything but under control.
Since then, Reichen wants nothing to do with animals of any kind. He doesn’t want to read about them. He doesn’t want to watch them on TV. He doesn’t even want to pet our neighbor’s golden retriever who he’s known and loved ever since he was born. Every time he sees the dog now, he runs right up my leg and says, ‘No, mamma! It’s like the goats!”
A friend of mine who we have play dates with every week owns a cat which never bothered Reichen before ‘the goat incident’ and now he is so petrified of the feline, Reichen literally stands on my legs the entire visit while begging for me to hold him.
Another not so bright idea of mine: taking Reichen to the real zoo last week. From 100 yards away, Reichen could see we were strolling to the elephant exhibit and from 100 yards away, Reichen was begging me to turn around.
No, he’s never been the same since the goat incident. And now family, friends, and neighbors all know about it, too. ‘The goat incident,’ we remind them when they momentarily forget why Reichen runs from a family pet and they knowingly nod and reply, ‘Oh, the goat incident.’
Maybe one day, he’ll write a blog about it and the title will be: ‘I’ve Never Been the Same Since the Goat Incident.’ I think it’s great material for a post.
Related posts:
My twin nieces had a fear of ALL quadripeds – dogs, cats, goats, horses, *hamsters*- until they were 6 and brought home a stray dog. They felt bad because he looked lost and his feet were bleeding from having run the streets for so long. Now THEY terrorize the animals. They want to hold, hug, pet, or otherwise assault anything with fur. So be encouraged…
My husband had a goat incident has a child- he still stays as far away from petting zoos as possible. Apparently, they have “creepy eyes”.