We think Zeus was born in 2006. We think he was at least part Alpine. We do not know much about his early life. He was brought to New Moon Goat Rescue in November of 2010, and we adopted him with a La Mancha goal Lil in February of 2011. Here are the photos of them from that day:

Zeus in truck window 2011

Zeus and Lil being walked into their new farm, 2011

Zeus looking at llamas 2011

And here they are being introduced to the flock after quarantine:

Zeus and Lil introductions 2011

We got them (and slightly later Billy) hoping they would be pack llamas.  Here are our attempts at pack goat training:

Zeus and Billy packing 2011

Zeus 2012

Zeus Lil and Billy packing 2014

And here is our one and only packing trip with Zeus and Billy:

We ended up up not going very far and mostly the goats wanting to lay on the trail and we had to pack the weight.  So that was the end of all of our goat packing days.

Here are random photos of Zeus in his “retirement”:

Zeus

Zeus spying tree 2016

Tom Zeus and barn wall that needs fixing

Aunt Chloe and Zeus

Aunt Ruthie and Zeus

Zeus of Farms Schoonover and New Moon, First of His Name, King of the Goats, Lord of Seven Pastures, and Protector of the Flock. 2016

But age had been catching up with him.  He had no molars for chewing hay.  We had been supplementing him like we do all the older animals with grain and wetted alfalfa pellets.  But after a while that was not working.  So we started spoiling him with cookies, pies and donuts in a special warmer pen next to the other goats.  But yesterday he could not stand up.  So I hugged him, gave him one last snicker doodle and we said good bye before putting him down.

This is an especially hard death.  Zeus was a very special goat, and the farm will not be the same without him.