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| 100 Goats, Chewing Everything, Invade Boise Neighborhood | 100 Goats, Chewing Everything, Invade Boise Neighborhood |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| No blade of grass, no rose bush nor flower bed, was safe from the goats. | No blade of grass, no rose bush nor flower bed, was safe from the goats. |
| Goats don’t belong on West Summerwind Drive, a quiet residential area in Boise, Idaho. But don’t tell them that. Goats roam where they please, and around 7:15 a.m. Friday, bewildered homeowners awoke to find more than 100 of the animals casing the neighborhood, looking for anything they could munch on. | Goats don’t belong on West Summerwind Drive, a quiet residential area in Boise, Idaho. But don’t tell them that. Goats roam where they please, and around 7:15 a.m. Friday, bewildered homeowners awoke to find more than 100 of the animals casing the neighborhood, looking for anything they could munch on. |
| “I just saw dozens and dozens of goats chewing up my neighbors’ yards,” Chris Kozlowski said by telephone, adding that he had to clean up droppings on his driveway and yard. “We used to live in the mountains, and it’d be nothing to see them driving hundreds of goats down Main Street. But certainly not in Boise.” | “I just saw dozens and dozens of goats chewing up my neighbors’ yards,” Chris Kozlowski said by telephone, adding that he had to clean up droppings on his driveway and yard. “We used to live in the mountains, and it’d be nothing to see them driving hundreds of goats down Main Street. But certainly not in Boise.” |
| The local television station KTVB, the leading authority on Boise goat invasions, got the scoop. It was closely chronicled by Joe Parris, a politics and breaking news reporter who made a strong case for any goat-related journalism awards. | The local television station KTVB, the leading authority on Boise goat invasions, got the scoop. It was closely chronicled by Joe Parris, a politics and breaking news reporter who made a strong case for any goat-related journalism awards. |
| The goats busted out of a nearby field, where a company that rents the animals for landscaping purposes — goats are good at eating weeds — had kept them. | |
| The company, We Rent Goats, said in an email late Friday that 118 goats were supposed to be eating noxious weeds at a nearby pond. But in a case of overzealous chomping, the goats stood up on their back feet and leaned against some wooden boards to nibble on tall weeds. The boards broke, and the goats escaped. | |
| By 8:30 a.m., We Rent Goats had corralled the creatures back into a truck, and the excitement was over. “All 118 have been safely transported to their next job,’’ the company said. “Where the fence is much stronger.” | |
| Mr. Parris said in an interview that the goats were friendly, and that he got to pet one. They weren’t very noisy, aside from the chewing. The smell, he said, was awful. | Mr. Parris said in an interview that the goats were friendly, and that he got to pet one. They weren’t very noisy, aside from the chewing. The smell, he said, was awful. |
| But while the residents were witnessing real-time property damage, they seemed to be in a good mood about it. Children jumped up and down in excitement. | But while the residents were witnessing real-time property damage, they seemed to be in a good mood about it. Children jumped up and down in excitement. |
| “You would assume the homeowners were upset that their lawns were being destroyed, but everyone was enjoying it,” Mr. Parris said. “Everyone was really happy about it.” | “You would assume the homeowners were upset that their lawns were being destroyed, but everyone was enjoying it,” Mr. Parris said. “Everyone was really happy about it.” |
| The goat-renting company has insurance “and will be following up with neighbors whose landscaping was damaged,” said Haley Williams, a spokeswoman for the Boise Police Department. | The goat-renting company has insurance “and will be following up with neighbors whose landscaping was damaged,” said Haley Williams, a spokeswoman for the Boise Police Department. |
| The escape provided a brief moment of joyful respite on social media, where people stopped arguing about politics for long enough to laugh at the goats. Mr. Parris’s dispatches were shared tens of thousands of times, and for a few minutes the internet was a moderately happy place. (The incessant notifications froze Mr. Parris’s phone, and he had to delete Twitter just to call into the station, he said.) | The escape provided a brief moment of joyful respite on social media, where people stopped arguing about politics for long enough to laugh at the goats. Mr. Parris’s dispatches were shared tens of thousands of times, and for a few minutes the internet was a moderately happy place. (The incessant notifications froze Mr. Parris’s phone, and he had to delete Twitter just to call into the station, he said.) |
| For Mr. Parris, covering a sudden goat rodeo was significantly more fun than covering the wildfires that have raged in Idaho in recent days. | For Mr. Parris, covering a sudden goat rodeo was significantly more fun than covering the wildfires that have raged in Idaho in recent days. |
| “I had a great morning,” he said. | “I had a great morning,” he said. |