These streetwise pet goats are the Okanagan's newest celebrities - Action News
Home WebMail Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 06:05 PM | Calgary | -5.3°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
British ColumbiaVideo

These streetwise pet goats are the Okanagan's newest celebrities

Two unique little pet goats and their owner have been turning heads in B.C.'s Okanagan over the last few months.

Lexus and Miata have been following their owner off leash as he runs errands since early winter

Two goats stand by their owner near a building as he delivers a seed bottle to the goat on the far right.
Miniature silky fainting goats Lexus, left, and Miata have become the darlings of residents and tourists in B.C.'s Okanagan since early winter. (Winston Szeto/CBC)

Two unique little pet goats and their owner have been turning heads in B.C.'s Okanaganover the last few months.

Since November, Lexus and Miata, one-year-old female miniature silky fainting goats, have been following their owner Greg Krauter off leash as he runs errands in his hometown of Summerlandor travels around the Okanagan.

Miniature silky fainting goats, or mini silkies,get their name from their long, silky coat and amyotonic gene that makes them faint and fall over when startled.

Krauter says he bought his two "little girls" last spring from Penticton's GottaGoat, which is one of five B.C. farms approved to breed the species by the Virginia-based Miniature Silky Fainting Goat Association.

Krauter says histwo does are docile and don't need to be on a leash because they're genetically designed to follow the alpha, meaning their owner or the dominant animal in the herd.

"They hate being away from their alphabecause their alpha is their safety. They'll never go out of sight, and they always want to stay near the alpha."

WATCH| Goats Lexus and Miata walk withtheir humanin downtown Kelowna:

B.C. man causes stir running errands with 2 pet goats

2 years ago
Duration 1:18
Miniature silky 'fainting' goats Lexus and Miata, both 1, love Tim Hortons bagels, says goat's owner Greg Krauter of Summerland, B.C.

Krauter says he has been takinghis two pets out with him since this winter's first heavy snowfall so they can get some exercise.

"Their yard was completely covered in snow they got nothing [there] to eat," he said. "They don't like snow in their stomachs."

Goats love Tim Hortons' bagels

Krauter says he often takes hislittle companions to coffee shops, including Tim Hortons, where the cinnamon raisin bagel is the two animals' all-time favourite.

"It's the only processed food that they like. They don't like cinnamon raisin [bagels] from a different company It's always Timmies."

A man in a grey jacket with a black tuque feeds two goats near a shop.
Owner Greg Krauter says Tim Hortons's cinnamon raisin bagel is the only processed food his little friends like. (Winston Szeto/CBC)

Krauter says Lexus and Miata have become minor celebrities in the Okanagan. Dozens of local residents and tourists came forward to petand photograph themwhen he visited Kelowna Tuesday morning. He even held the animals up for kisses.

Kim Pasco from Vancouver, who ran into them near Kelowna City Park, said she enjoyed the tactile sensation of feeding them seeds with her hands.

"It's amazing how accurate they are with the tongue they can snap those seeds off your hand, and you can barely feel the tongue getting the seeds."

A woman squats to feed two goats while talking to a man on the street.
Kim Pasco from Vancouver, right, feeds Lexus and Miata after running into them near Kelowna City Park Tuesday morning. (Winston Szeto/CBC)

Krauter says given the great experience he's had withLexus and Miata,he's thinking of buying two more female mini silkies from the same farm this spring.