Writing Update; Goats and Cactus

I'm almost three-fourths of the way through the current project, which I suppose is not bad considering that at one point I had to go back and do a considerable amount of rewriting so that my characters' actions would actually make sense, of a sort. But the work has not rolled along as swimmingly as I hoped it would.

Lately I've been reading books in a series for which I hope to write. More on that when and if something actually comes of it.

The other little tidbit I have to pass along concerns our Nigerian dwarf goat, Festus. (We've had several of these goats over the years, but Festus is the only one left.) There's a large clump of cactus in one corner of his pen, and the other day when I went to feed him, I noticed that he had close to a dozen cactus needles stuck in his muzzle and head. Obviously, he had decided that he wanted to see how cactus tastes, and he wasn't going to let a little thing like getting stuck in the face deter him. Compassionate soul that I am, I told the goat, "I'll come back and pull those out later," and went about some other errands, after which I promptly forgot to return and pull out the cactus needles. But I did remember eventually and let Festus out of his pen so that he could come up on our back porch, where I got one arm around his neck and held on to him while I used the other hand to remove the cactus needles. Unknown to me, while I am doing this, Festus decides this is an appropriate time and place to relieve himself, so he winds up taking a leak all over my shoe. I'm still undecided whether it was revenge for forgetting about his dilemma, or simply happenstance. But either way, the moral of the story is: The next time you're pulling cactus needles out of a goat's face, watch your shoes.

(The preceding story was brought to you at the request of my wife Livia, who for some reason found it humorous.)