"Give Me A Fig, Please!"

Max staring longingly at the object of his desire.
(Click pictures for larger view)

"Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!" ~ Anne Tyler

Max is not a dog. He is a goat. Goats will eat anything; Max eats anything. His great love this past summer was apparently figs. Very rarely did we find a ripe one on the ground; only those the bees were eating. This may have been part of his abdominal problem. The figs may have irritated his bowel.

The fig tree.

Max sits under the tree while the figs are picked, hoping I will drop one. Yesterday, I took a plastic Walmart bag to put the ripe figs in. I picked two, dropped them in the bag, heard "plop, plop", looked down and saw Max eat both before I could even make a move. Bad dog!

The fig tree has some sort of irritant on the leaves and the white milk that oozes from the stem of the picked fruit is very sticky. After a few minutes in the tree, brushing up against the leaves, I start to itch. This doesn't seem to be an allergic reaction, just an irritant. My dad picks, he itches. Max sits under the tree, on the leaves and he itches. But Max doesn't listen, he won't leave; the lure of the fig is too great. It is a sweet fruit.


The object of Max's affection, a fig.

Without the figs, Max's tummy has improved. His ascites has subsided. He no longer gets figs as treats (except when he steals them) and no more rawhide chew bones. But, he still thinks a lot of things are chew bones. Today, for example, I was trying to photograph shells and a starfish outside in the afternoon sun. He grabbed the starfish and took it across the yard. Before I could grab it he ate a small piece of one ray. Calcium carbonate shouldn't really hurt him, but I wonder what else is in that stomach of his.

Bad dog, Max!! No, I should say, "Bad goat, Max!!!"

Max will be visiting the Carnival of the Dogs hosted at Mickey's Musings. He also likes to see the animals at Friday's Ark.