The Backyard Animals Saved The Day: Helped Rescue A Colt Raised by Goats

This story begins in the backyard of 54 Perfect Street, the last street between Wilkes-Barre and Ashley Pennsylvania. The mountains frequented by goats are directly behind the house. Perfect Street is so close to the wooded mountainous areas of PA that a panoply of animals live in or frequent the back yard and seem to enjoy the gentle hills in the yard. A unique characteristic of the many types of animals is that they can all speak fluent English. For the vigilant, the very same animals that are seen outside the back window during all seasons can also be spotted close to the mountains where the goats frequently visit. Occasionally, the neighbors will see a full grown bronco on the lower side of the mountains. It is not often that wild horses are spotted and so when a neighbor sees a bronco, all the other neighbors learn about it lickety-split. It sure is fun and magical to see. Our story begins in this section of the lower mountain just beyond Perfect Street. There had been no bronco sitings for several years before this day. There were always a ton of backyard animals chatting in the back yard of the Perfect Street residence. Some of the young children in the neighborhood “swear” that they had spoken to the backyard animals at times. They say there were conversations among the animals and also with the children. I was often fortunate enough to overhear or be part of such conversations. The smaller kids liked telling me about the topics they talked about. So, it was much like being there with them. On this particular day in the fall, the animals had spotted a horse trailer on the side of the mountain. The driver stopped and got out and he took a really fat mare out for what looked like it was going to be a walk. The mare soon collapsed. That is the real beginning of the truly exciting part of this story. The driver (named Gus), and a friend of his (named Bing) were tending to the mare when the backyard animals saw a baby horse emerge from the mare. The mare’s heart had grown weak from carrying the colt and it looked like she would not make it. The strangers got a lift out and placed the mare into the horse carrier. They then started their truck and took off for parts unknown. They left the baby horse (colt) on the ground in the light snow that had fallen. The backyard animals were chatting for several days afterwards about the events of that day. They told the kids who asked what had happened to the baby horse. The animals said they had not seen the baby since that day but promised to look harder. There was about six inches of snow on the ground by then so it was hard to see anything. Eventually the rabbits and the squirrels and the opossum and other backyard animals found the colt under the snow. He was still alive. The baby horse was too big for them so they went looking for their buddies, the goats. They found a few of the goats several hundred yards away on the mountain side, and they brought them to see what they first thought was a a baby goat. But it was not. One look and the goats knew that it was a colt—a baby horse—and they promised they would do their best to make sure the baby horse lived and they said he could live with them if need be. And, so the promise was made that day that the colt would be raised by goats.