That being said, I am one to campaign against owning too many animals. I would love to have more — including goats, which I love. And I would be a TNR “mom” (trap, neuter and return of ferals) if I had a barn. But two (as you can see) are enough for me to keep up with. I wish I could do more about the pet (especially cat) population explosion. A good friend’s daughter’s young female cat is pregnant, and SHE was a kitten they kept from a previous litter (mom became sick and had to have the Dog Warden come to get and presumably destroy her as there was no money for a vet). There are multiple non-neutered males in the area, and their owners are as much at fault. I’ve given my friend’s daughter reams of info on lower-cost spay clinics (though I agree it’s still too expensive). I am furious with her. It sounds like Doug is very passive, and may even subscribe to the “cats are disposable” mindset. I’d not like to deal with him on this.

Heartbreak, anguish, worry, stress, and empty wallets. It can happen with two animals, or a hundred-and-two animals. Surely it is much more likely to happen the more animals you have. Sometimes it truly IS time to “call it a day.” Maybe this is now for the woman, and she’s coming to terms with it. I do feel for her, as I feel for you and the awful things you’ve gone through with the animals you’ve loved and diligently care for.

In any event, this was a far different post before Ms. Perin did issue a personal attack upon me by stating, in her original comment to me on this blog, that I was “whining about (my) mobility loss” and committing a very high level of insensitivity by making that comment, to say the least. That was a direct challenge to me to take my gloves off and I did. When people post online what they have to say is fair game for anyone. She doesn’t have to read my blog, and neither do you. I’m doing you a favor in posting your comment to me and I suggest you mind your own business from now on.

And madam, you DID whine about your disability. I can say that to you because I have a serious disability too and I don’t whine about it. Mentioning that you whined is NOT a personal attack on you. Whine about yours all you want but don’t attack someone because YOU are disabled. You brought it up, not she.

But I particularly don’t need a “friend” who would stoop so low as to state, to a disabled person and highly regarded poet, “If you want to whine about your situation and feel sorry for your loss of mobility in a riding accident, etc. .” That you would make such a comment, that someone referring to her own disability is “whining,” is vindictive and it escalates and degrades the dialogue.I believe that you were the one who said you were in over your head and “whined” in the post I read and certainly have a right to refer to as a spring board to my own. Have at me; I don’t care.

Let me close by saying that it is becoming widely known that animal hoarders have substantive psychiatric issues and need intervention. Perhaps you should take my comments to heart before someone in your county, your vet, perhaps, determines that having an overpopulated, run down farm with sick animals everywhere is serious enough to constitute violation of Iowa’s statutory prohibitions against animal hoarding. I was happy to keep you anonymous in my post, and in sharing my link. You, however, evidently wish for these things to be publicized, and so be it.

BTW, my comment about breeding “on a group plan” was a joke, and I was also referring to myself. Do you or do you not breed your does every year, overwhelming yourself with caretaking? My understanding of a working goat farm is that people don’t just breed to have cute kids around, and they don’t breed if they have to put their goats in with their other livestock, and if they lack the resources for triage or the right fencing. They don’t have kids getting stuck in fences, carried off by coyotes, wormy does, does whose mastitis goes untreated until it’s too late, and they de-horn so that no one gets a “hernia.” At least, according to my old goat vet, to whom I referred you sometime back.

The friend who mentored me in the goat department years ago had a beautiful herd of Saanens, all screened for CAE, all culled to be good milkers and have good conformation, and she didn’t have the daily crises you do and that I did when I wanted to be a breeder/farmer– kind of like you, in your About page.

As noted, when I had dogs I couldn’t properly take care of I was “attacked” by “insensitive” fellow Golden people. As I say in my post, I had it coming. And now, so do they, as they each live in a glass house and it’s appropriate to stand up for oneself, as you did to a point. What you said to me re my “whining” about my mobility loss is so far below the belt I have no problem taking my gloves off now. It is tantamount to my making a crack about someone’s “challenged” child, or marriage on the rocks, or some other little personal gem I might happen to know about, and throwing the most painful thing in their lives up in their faces.

Finally, how is paraphrasing the very thing you said about yourself on your blog in the intro to my post insulting you? I think I’ve given you some free press.