To Go or the Goat

                                                                           I’ve always loved all kinds of animals, but something about goats really struck me deep. This incident happened when I was nine years old. I had just come back to India for the summer holidays. My grandpa had recently just bought a patch of land in a village area and wanted me and my family to visit the place. At first, I was skeptical because travelling to see a few fields filled with adults was not at the top of my agenda. I was just itching to play with my friends. But when my grandpa said that there would be animals, I obliged immediately. The trip was fantastic and we saw numerous men and women tending to goats. From that moment on, I was absolutely hooked on the idea of owning a pet goat and threw enough tantrums to last me a lifetime. My parents reluctantly agreed. My grandpa brought me a goat from the neighboring house and we went back home, with me promising them that I would cherish it. I was beyond excited and made sure I stayed with the goat for the whole day, but I never took care of the goat’s basic necessities. Then came the night, and the moment where the best day of my life would become the worst. We tied the goat on the terrace and were walking down the stairs when the goat started bleating nonstop. We rushed back upstairs immediately expecting the worst. Nothing was amiss and the goat stopped bleating as well. That was when we came to the realization that the goat needed company throughout the night. I asked my parents to stay upstairs with the goat as I was too afraid of the dark. My mother then started yelling at me saying that it was my idea to bring the goat home and that I should be the one staying with it. We then decided to leave it on the terrace thinking that it would eventually stop. But that resulted in our neighbors complaining about the noise. They asked us to give the goat sleeping pills. Angry as it is with my antics, my father exploded and asked them to eat the sleeping pills themselves. This resulted in our whole family losing a night’s worth of sleep staying up with the goat. We then had to decide if we would go to return the goat or keep the goat. My family came to the conclusion that I wasn’t responsible enough to keep the goat, so we returned to the village the next day and gave the goat back. We also learned that that the goat had been the pet of a little girl in the village and used to sleep together with her, resulting in the goat’s constant cries. The goat and the girl had a tearful reunion. Me and my family returned back home exhausted, tired out of our wits and pledged to never consider owning a goat again. BENAZIR BAIJU St . Teresa's College