Posted by melissa on April 25, 2001 at 20:43:41:
My Mom works a a Nature Center giving tours to school kids (retired teacher) the naturalist had pointed out to Mom that when you get too close to the deer herd the buck will make a sound like a sneeze to alert his does to the danger.Goats are closely related to deer.
Fast forward to my barn yesterday morning. We are listening to the radio and the barn potatos are lounging in the pen while I milk Claire. I had just put down fresh straw and it was a bit dusty....so I sneezed.... twice.....those girls SHOT out out the barn in a mini-stampede and even the doe I was milking was ready to be 'outta here!'
I just sat there for a minute until it dawned on me that I had sent off 'the alarm'. I started laughing and the girls came back in VERY miffed that I had played a weird joke on them (and needless to say that was the end of Claire's milk for that session!)