Here's looking at you, kid

What pygmy goats lack in size they more than make up for in personality, says Julie Harding, who meets the owners who have fallen for their charms

- Julie Harding

DIMINUTIVE and captivating, pygmy goats are invariably class clowns and escapology experts. Equally, they are hearty and relatively undemanding, which means that they frequently find favour with first-time animal keepers with small parcels of land. Provide a pygmy with shelter, playthings, a playmate (for they shouldn’t be kept alone), an ample dollop of hay, an unending supply of fresh water, plus a good mineral lick, and they will return the favour with hours of laugh-inducing antics. Fencing, however, should be considerably higher than Capra hircus themselves (who generally hit the measuring stick at about the same mark as a cocker spaniel) or bids for freedom are likely to become a nightmarishly regular occurrence.

Kept principally as pets, companions or to grace the show ring, their sanguine temperaments and stature mean that they can sometimes be found visiting the likes of care homes and hospices to provide a pick-me-up to the sick and the frail.

The Pygmy Goat Club (www.pygmygoatclub. org.uk) is a good first port of call for would-be owners of these pint-sized, sometimes clamorous fizz-bombs, which are descended from dwarf breeds, notably those hailing from West Africa and South Sudan. Once the chosen goats arrive, they certainly won’t be leaving in a hurry, as these devotees attest.

‘We call them outdoor dogs’

SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE smallholder Tanya Sheasby and her three sons, Sam, 14, Finlay, 12, and James, 10, who run The Little Farming Company, breed and train pygmy goats as therapy animals.