That which you see above, arrived, via email, from my Favorite Nephew Jason, last night, with the only text in the email saying...
"Thought you'd enjoy this photo".
I don't know if I'd say I enjoyed this photo, I rarely enjoy much of anything. But, I did find the photo to be amusing, which is close to enjoying something.
In the photo, on the left, that is Jason's Aunt Nancy, also known as my big sister.
Next to Nancy is Jason's dad, who is also known as my little brother, Jake.
Barely seen, next to brother Jake, is me.
I am not sure who it is who is bottle feeding the four-legged beast.
I think the four-legged beast is either a goat or a sheep.
I vaguely remember us having a pet of that sort, which lived in the garage of our house in Mount Vernon, with the house located on what is now known as College Way, due to the road being that which takes one to Skagit Valley College, a college across the street from our Mount Vernon abode, which we lived in during the period when Skagit Valley College was built, before we moved a couple miles north, to Burlington, moving to the house in which I grew up, on Washington Avenue, across from Maiben Park.
I can no longer call my mom and dad to ask them what they remember about our pet goat or sheep. I am the oldest sibling. If I do not remember details, it is pretty much hopeless anyone else will remember.
It seems like we called the four-legged beast, Nanny Goat.
A name which upset our then littlest sister, who took umbrage at the four-legged beast sort of being named after her.
I do think, in the photo documentation, the four-legged beast looks more like a sheep than a goat.
Why would our parental units get us an animal like this, to pen in the garage?
Perplexing.
Is the person bottle-feeding the four-legged beast Aunt Shotty? The wife of my mom's eldest brother, who operated a farm in Whatcom County, about 40 miles north of our Mount Vernon abode.
I suspect there is no one now living who can provide answers to these multiple questions...
UPDATE:
Turns out I was totally erroneous in assuming no one alive would know details about Nanny Goat. Nephew Jason emailed his favorite uncle the following after realizing his uncle needed some additional clarification.
Jason's email's subject line "From your brother's book..."
We had a pet lamb, or sheep, I don’t know how you tell the difference as a pet at the Mount Vernon house. We called our pet lamb, sheep, “Nanny Goat.” Dad drove a heavy metal stake into the ground on the property line in the back yard and tethered a thick rope to a neck collar that prevented the little lamb, sheep, “Nanny Goat”, from escaping to the open pasture to the south of our backyard. We never had a cat or dog as a pet, just this little lamb or sheep. Dad never liked pets in the house. So we had a pet little lamb, sheep, which Grandpa Doc Porter rescued from its mother who died giving birth. Dad grew up on different farms in rural Whatcom County and was accustomed to having chicks and ducks and geese and evidently little lambs, or sheep, as outdoor company. Dad’s family rented a house on a farm when he was just a kid. When the landlord raised the rent from $16 a month to a whopping $17 a month Dad’s parents decided that was too much money for the place, so they moved on to another farm in the county.
Whatever “Nanny Goat” was, a little lamb or a sheep, definitely not a goat, when unleashed from her spike “Nanny Goat” was content following us around the back and side yard. As far as pets go she was a good pet. Mom was never particularly happy when “Nanny Goat” would follow us into the house coming in right behind us through the back door. I think our little lamb, sheep, we called “Nanny Goat” just thought she was just one of us and wanted to do whatever we were doing.
Additional information from Jason, regarding the identity of the lamb bottle feeder in the photo...
Your little brother identified the unidentified person in the photo as Nancy Sawyer, a neighbor down College Way to the east.
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