We Adopted 3 Goats. Turns Out One is a Fainting Goat.

So here's a fun one. We recently added 3 more goats to the ranch, which felt like a natural next step for a hobby farm that already has chickens, geese, and emus. Goats are smart, entertaining, and useful. What could go wrong?

Turns out: nothing went wrong, exactly. But we did get quite the surprise when we realized, after the fact, that we'd adopted a fainting goat. We had never owned one before. We didn't even know what to look for.

For the uninitiated: fainting goats (officially called Myotonic goats) don't actually faint. Their muscles briefly seize up when they're startled or excited, causing them to stiffen and sometimes tip over. It looks dramatic. It's completely harmless. And the first time it happened, we had absolutely no idea what was going on.

There we were, going about a normal morning on the ranch, when something startled our new addition, and down she went. Stiff-legged, wide-eyed, totally frozen for a second before hopping right back up like nothing happened. We thought something was seriously wrong, then we remembered she is a fainting goat.

She's healthy, happy, and fully settled in now. More updates on the goats coming soon, and yes, there will be video.