John Emerson: Those are sort of foo-foo looking goats, though, sort of high-society social parasite looking goats. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Language Hat: The kind of goats who will eat only imported tin cans.
Here are some pictures that show their tougher side:
Number 4145 is Misty. If you remove the number from her ear the authorities could say she’s not legally a goat, not a goat on paper, otherwise I would do so.
We shear them twice a year, and after they have been sheared they wear coats for two weeks in case it gets cold. This is Vesla, the small one; note that her horns are smaller too.
A friendly butt from Misty. Note that Holly, on the left, has blue eyes; it’s very unusual and her best feature, in my opinion. Misty’s brown eyes are more friendly, except when she butts you. Misty my favourite goat, she is the smartest and the best communicator.
They don’t look so tough when their wool has grown out a bit. Remember that these are angora goats, not milking goats. They supply us with very soft, warm mohair wool.
A Bad Guide 
It’s not really true to say that there are NO comments to this post; because the post itself consists of two comments, elsewhere (at Languagehat).
So there are in fact two comments at least.
I should say so.
Also, Misty has an appraising look in her eye in that first picture that suggests you wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
That’s very perceptive, Language. Vesle knows that look well — she’s on Misty’s bad side, always has been.
AJP, when you say these are NOT milking goats, does that mean that it is effectively impossible to have dual-purpose goats? In my childhood on farms, the only goats we had were billys who seemd to be mostly of the tin-eating/weed-control variety, so it would be interesting to know what the difference is between dairy goats and fibre goats.
Born and raised in NZ. I have never been to India, sadly, and now I am less keen to go. As the symptoms of my CP get worse, the idea of limping and staggering through the crowds is somewhat unappealing. So maybe I’ll just get my Overseas Citizenship of India to be on the right side when the desi influx here sees us annexed.
Speaking of goats and India, though, My Dad’s childhood was in what is now Pakiatan, with his family home in Quetta, so I am planning to ask him if he remembers those very impressive markhors. No disrespect to you and your friend, but it was definitely that fine goat that stood out in the party shot you provided.
I think that’s right. At any rate, this kind of goat, the Angora, will only give milk to their kids. I don’t know about cashmere goats, though. In the beginning I was reluctant to have goats that didn’t give us milk, but then I remembered I don’t like getting up at five in the morning.
Was your childhood spent in NZ or in India, Stuart? I expect there are lots of goats in both places.
You’ve been very kind with my questions. Do you spin the mohair into yarn yourselves, or sell it/ give it away? How much wool do three goats produce in a season? It doesn’t look like it would be quite enough for a sweater.
Not at all. Yes, my wife and my daughter spin it and they’ve knitted quite a lot of hats and scarves and sweaters. There’s a place in Denmark where you can sell it, but we’ve never gotten around to it. Actually we have tons of shopping bags full of wool, and at some point Something is going to have to be done with them. I can’t remember how much wool you get from one goat, it’s a surprisingly large amount. I’ll have to go and ask my wife…
The party shot was truthfully only a photoshop collage I did of a nineteen-seventies punk group and a markhor, but it created quite a stir in the short time it was up. I removed it on the grounds that certain teenagers might be acutely embarrassed by it. I will put up a post sometime about the markhor though, because they are wonderful. I think they got shot at in the past, their home being in disputed territory. Now their numbers are on the rise, I read.
I’ve always wanted to go to India, you too probably. You never know, maybe we’ll go sometime.