Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - 8
MILL CREEK STORIES
The Guy and the Goat
Can a relationship with a backyard animal evolve from cuisine to companion?
By MOLLY DUGGER BRENNAN | Illustration by JOSEPH MACKERETH
I
f y'all know anything by now, it's that the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has more than its fair share
of colorful people. When I say colorful, I am using
my grandmother's polite euphemism. The range
on that color wheel is anywhere from entertainingly eccentric to a concerned, "Earl, do you need
help paying for your meds this month?"
And that brings me to an elderly widower who lives
in my neighborhood. He stays to himself, hardly ever
venturing outside. He's an acquaintance, not a friend,
but still he's a neighbor. Being a neighbor earns him a
wave from me if I'm in the yard, or a head-tilt-hey-there
if I'm in the car.
Greetings from behind the wheel of a vehicle have a
hierarchy, you know. If the other driver is unknown to
you, they get an index finger raised while the rest of the
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fingers continue to grip the wheel. The more familiarity
you have with the person in the other car, the more fingers get raised in greeting. If you're neighbors or friends,
you give them the old head tilt plus four raised fingers.
That's as friendly as it can get at 45 miles per hour on
a back road. That my friends, is the head-tilt-hey-there.
Well, this guy shocked us all when he went and
bought himself a goat. I mean, this is a goat-owning
county but I would not have pegged this guy as a ready
candidate for animal husbandry. Ostensibly, he bought
the goat to eat all the weeds along his tree line and then
in the fall, the goat was going to be with Jesus via a propane grill and some barbecue sauce. For him to have any
animals at all is noteworthy. Not even a barn cat wanders his property.
Because the goat was destined to be temporary, my
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - 3
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - 4
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - Cover4
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