It’s Vesla. My wife took this picture outside the goathouse at around nine in the evening, the goats’ bedtime, when she went over to turn out their light.
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A Bad Guide 
a new fave! i ‘ll definitely peruse this one one day
Do that.
A very good picture. Also because at the first glance the title can be understood as expressing both the emotions of Vesla and of the spectator of the photo.
I sometimes wonder what they’re doing in there when we’re not around.
Just goatin’ around, I dare say.
Going out to turn off the light in mid-winter shows devotion. I’d rig a line to the house …
The horse isn’t going to turn it off.
Oh I don’t know. You could train him, put a clock in his stall that only strikes at lights-out for the goats, then he stamps his hoof on a very rugged switch …
Or, of course, rig a line to the house …
Oh, the hice! Well, why did you say horse if you meant hice?
Good heavens.
She looks bored. Is she one of the smarter ones? Maybe she needs to listen to some literature or some classical music.
One of the smarter ones? What do you mean by this?
-Mr Crown asks testily.
I’m in love with Vesla. In your photos she’s just got such a big personality.
AJP Myopic: Look at my original post again …or perhaps u and r are confused in Nynorsk …
But I now think the horse-box switch is a better idea, it would work even when you were away.
One of the smarter ones?
As goats go, that is. The Jordanian breeds I’m most familiar with didn’t do much but eat, although I have to admit I didn’t make a study of it, beyond the Jameed cheese sauce they put on mansaf with the pine nuts. She might be trying to tell you she needs an intellectual life. Mark Twain, maybe.
Okay, I’ll ask the horse. But I don’t think he’s exactly looking for extra responsibilities.
Goats are like people or dogs: some are smart, some are only interested in junk food.
I’ve never seen a goat that was interested in people before, or that had anything even remotely like a personality. Of course in Jordan the animals, especially dogs, don’t always fare too well.
In the same way that some European might say “all Chinese people look alike to me” I think it’s hard for us to distinguish individuals amongst a herd of animals. We’ve only got three goats, so it’s much easier to identify their very different personalities.
I don’t know that Jordanians necessarily have large herds, their goats are for cheese. I remember often seeing two or three together, and usually of different sizes and colors.
The animals in that country don’t look healthy–in an economy like that, just being able to afford medical care for the people is hard enough. I had rabies shots before I went, but still I generally stayed away from the animals. Also if you move your hand suddenly their dogs will cringe, obviously they’re used to being beaten. Animals may just fervently wish that humans will not notice them at all. (If you are being chased by a vicious acting dog, or for that matter being stalked by a human, you can also just pick up a stone and they will run away–seems to convey a universal message, like David and Goliath.)
It’s hard to second guess someone else’s cultural motivations though. Maybe like the farmers I knew growing up, they just regarded the animals as something that belonged outdoors along with the cash crops….something you just didn’t try to bond with. I remember how shocked everyone was when my Danish grandfather let a tame cat who wandered onto the property stay in the house. It just wasn’t done, at least not by him.