(The following newspaper article written by Lisa Boucher appeared in the December 25th Edition of The St. Albans Messenger on Page 3A)
Good will toward men .. and goats
It takes a community to return lost animals
By LISA M. BOUCHER
Messenger Correspondent
FAIRFAX/WESTFORD— Miracles do not only happen on 34th Street in Manhattan, they happen right here on Route 128 also. Just ask Mary, the owner of Campagnola Farms in Westford.
A couple of weeks ago, Mary (who requested her full name not be used) had two of her goats, Ellie and Nefretete, chased off the farm by one of the family dogs. She discovered the missing animals when she arrived home from work that Friday and went out to feed them.
"They were nowhere to be found, I figured they got spooked and would be back the next day," Mary said of her discovery. "When they weren't there Saturday, I thought they were coyote food, I just assumed they were dead."
While good deeds and charity abound during the "holiday season" and people are filled with good will toward others, giving to clothing, food, and toy drives for those in need, because it feels good to give to charity and it's mostly an easy thing to do this "thinking of others" while out frantically purchasing gifts and wrapping them for loved ones.
We often forget in our haste that random unselfish acts of kindness are the true blessings in life and angels of mercy roam everywhere on Vermont's rural landscape. Several had converged in Fairfax in mid-December.
Man (and woman) who sit with goats
Jerry Smith and his wife Caroline Ballard were driving home from a day of shopping when just before Fairfax village on Route 128 the couple encountered two goats running down the
middle of the road in their direction.
Former veterinarians and owners of several pigmy goats, the couple pulled over to the side of the road to do...something. There wasn't a plan, but the pair knew they wanted to help the goats.
"I rolled down my window and one goat came over and said hi, the other went around to the back," said Jerry Smith "Both had collars, so we grabbed them and brought them to the side of the road."
Several other people, including the gentleman named John who was driving behind the goats stopped to offer assistance as Smith and Ballard hung out on the side of the road with the goats. John, a resident went to the Fairfax town clerk to notify the animal control officer, Bill Stygles, (who actually lives in the town of Fletcher).
Another lady stopped and went dorr-to-door looking to see who might own the goats in the vicinity, but she didn't have any luck, because the runaways were several miles from home at that point.
It wouldn't be certifiably Vermont if the guy in the pick-up truck hadn't stopped and offered to deliver the goats somewhere. Smith told the Good Samaritan that they didn't have any place to take them.
"It was about an hour we waited on the side of the road and waved to people as they went by," he said.
Meanwhile back at the ranch
Devastated that her goats were missing, Mary's husband suggested that she post a bulletin on the Westford Front Porch Forum (a Web site dedicated to local news events) and encouraged her to not give up just yet.
"I had no faith whatsoever that it would work, but he talked me into it," she said. "So late Saturday I put a posting on the Front Porch Forum and Sunday morning I had three or four (voice mails) telling me they had either seen them, knew who did, or that Bill Stygles (an animal control officer had them, so it worked out."
Mary made arrangements with Stygles to pick up her goats that same day.
"It was really nice that he did that, because it isn't part of his job as a dog warden to take these guys, but he did it," she said. "Thank God, he kept them until I could pick them up on Sunday."
But it doesn't end there...
As word got out about the runaway goats in town and big news in a small town always goes viral, it made its way to Fairfax's own local news forum (www.vtgrandpa.com) under the heading of: "Are you missing two GOATS?" Henry Raymond, the site's moderator had made the post after learning that the goats had been picked up by the animal control officer.
Over the 'course of the next few days, Henry kept everyone up to speed on Goatgate and a few community members weighed in on who might own the goats, hoping for their safe return.
Jerry Smith, back home in Hyde Park with his purchases put safely away, was still wondering about his roadside charges from the day before, so he did a Google search for local news in Fairfax and got a hit for Raymond's forum.
Members have to be approved by the moderator and have to have some connection to Fairfax (this is to keep the site from being overrun by trouble makers with no other interests) so Smith appealed for membership and it was granted on the grounds that he was the guy who hung out with the goats while, waiting for Bill Stygles to arrive.
Smith posted his account of what happened on the community forum then another member posted the Front Porch Forum message of Mary's and was one of the people who had left her a voice mail message. Raymond also contacted her after seeing the post and also called Stygles to let him know of the discovery. Ironically, Mary is the dog catcher in Westford.
"Obviously we like goats," Smith said. "They were very nice girls. They seemed content to hang out with us. I think they were cold—they were shivering and standing real close to us. We were shivering too."
Smith continued to check in on the progress of the situation and eventually Mary found her way there also to express her gratitude once her goats were home on the range again.
Mary said she is from New Jersey and has lost animals there before, but feels it is such a fast paced environment no one really cares and no one bothers to stop and look.
"It really makes me quite appreciative of the community I live in, that people would even bother to stop and put in an hour of their time while they figured out what to do, when they were out shopping and tired and wanting to go home," she said.
"I can tell you, when I finally got them back I was crying. I was devastated when they ran off and you have no idea how surprised I was when I found out somebody had found them."
