I found your entry interesting thus I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog….

my mom, btw, had a pet house goat as a little girl. they raised it from a baby, and although i don’t know the technique used to toilet train it, it went to the door to be let out, when it had to “go”. they also had a dog who was it’s best pal, so maybe the pups taught it. at any rate, it can be done! but not in every circumstance, i agree.

I had a pygmy goat who would sometimes come in the house. She ALWAYS pooped as soon as she got inside. It was not avoidable. Once she did that she was fine… but poop, even goat poop, is no good in the house.

Also, seeing your wood stove in the background reminds me of something… I was running my Roomba the other day and it occurred to me to suggest it to you. You’ve mentioned that the wood stove creates an endless output of dust and ash on the floors in your house, and the Roomba, while extravagant, has been a really awesome purchase for us. It saves us a lot of labor. In our case we’re keeping up with dust from nearby construction and dirt from the garden and hair from two hairy cats. It was expensive but worth it.