- November 17, 2024
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It was not a sight you expect to see at Indian Trails Sports Complex. Last week, while her sons were practicing on their soccer teams, Michelle McCabe held an umbrella in the drizzle and walked the family’s pet goat on a leash.
Soon, she attracted a crowd of children who took turns petting the goat, a Nigerian dwarf goat, which is 10 weeks old and will eventually be as tall as 21 inches when fully grown.
“The signs says, ‘No dogs allowed on the turf,’” McCabe said, “but it doesn’t say anything about goats.” She kept the goat to the sidewalk for the most part, however.
Her 8-year-old son, Kie, got Spyro as a Christmas present and named it after a “Skylanders” video game character. McCabe said she is hoping to make a vest for the goat and let him be something of a mascot for his PDA soccer team.
McCabe and her family live in the Haw Creek area of Flagler County. Kie’s older brother, K.J., is 12, and their sister is Ashley, 17. McCabe’s husband, Kelly, works as world history teacher at Father Lopez Catholic High School. They also have a pet pot-bellied pig named Oreo, along with two dogs and a cat.
The family’s other animals, 36 chickens and six rabbits, are quasi pets. Some of the chickens and rabbits have names, but the animals designated as future food are not named.
Spyro has been well-behaved so far, she said, although he does rear his head back and attempt to head-butt people occasionally. At first it was funny, and the McCabe children would head-butt the goat back. Then he grew stubby little horns, and the game had to stop. McCabe said the goat sleeps with Ashley, but eventually will need to be come an outdoor pet. The same process happened with the pot-bellied pig, which was originally a house pet, too.
Oreo used to go in the kitchen and open a corner cabinet, which had a spinning shelf in it, McCabe said. “He figured out … how to push it around until he found the most sugary cereal and he would take off with it. He did it one too many times, and he had to go outside.”
Next up for Spyro? Ashley is hoping to use the pet goat for community service hours and take him to nursing homes to cheer up the residents there.
