Urban growth traps goat in Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The growth of cities paves the way for people and the animals of their choosing to plop down and call a patch of ground home. But in the process, wild animals like possums, raccoons and deer are often trapped in the resulting urban jungle.

For the most part, we learn to coexist with the critters. But when a large feral Billy goat takes up residence on the parking lot and lawn of the local Girl Scout headquarters building, folks tend to take a bit of notice.

“We have a lot of meeting rooms and they face out (to the front windows),” said Scout Marketing and Communications Director Lolis Garcia-Baab. “So we've had several instances where we're in a meeting.

“In fact, we had some very important guests from our corporate headquarters the other day and we were having a meeting. They were facing the window and one of them shouted, 'Oh, my God! There's something alive out there!'

“And of course, all of us knew exactly what she was referring to, so none of us even turned around.”

Then there is Larry Barkley, who takes his wife to work at a nearby office building and picks her up there every day. It is rare that he doesn’t spot the goat along the way.

“He's a black goat,” Barkley said, “with kind of reddish tint to him and a big rack of horns on him.

“I know that the people in these various offices here know about him. He's kind of like a mascot for the people that work in this area back here.

“I don't know if he's wild or if he got loose from a farm some years ago and just lives out here on the (nearby Walnut) creek. He seems to survive out here.”

Part of the goat’s survival strategy involves keeping plenty of distance between himself and his surrounding fan club.

“When he runs, he's actually running away from you;” Garcia-Baab said. “He's not running towards you. So I don't think there's a danger at all, but he is a little intimidating.

“He looks at you. He's got kind of yellow eyes and these horns and he's black and brown, so he kind of looks a little intimidating, but he's never shown any aggressive tendencies toward any of us.”

In fact, the only downside to the animal’s persistent presence on the grounds is the ongoing gifts he leaves underfoot.

“Billy goats are kind of smelly,” Garcia-Baab said, “and he has kind of marked his territory. So our custodial staff has had to clean up after him, if you know what I mean.

“It's a good thing he's a vegetarian because his pellets don't smell, but his urine definitely smells. He does leave his markings.”

Nobody seems to mind that, though. In fact, people are really quite drawn to the goat.

“I think he's a little lonely,” said Garcia-Baab, “because he looks in the rearview mirrors or the little side mirrors of the car and kind of stares at himself quite a bit.”

What people do worry about is something going wrong in the animal’s life, like a sojourn onto the nearby Interstate 35 highway.

“He seems to have the good sense to stay on this side of things and not wander out into the highway,” Barkley said, “but I'm worried about him that, you know, someday he's going to get enticed or scared or something and get moved out toward that highway.

“So I'd like to see him, you know, actually rescued and taken somewhere where he can live out the rest of his life in a better situation.”

That, however, is not easily done.

“We had one of our rangers come out here and he actually built a pen,” Garcia-Baab said. “And he lured him, over the course of a week, and got him with some fruits and vegetables and got him into the pen and then they slammed the pen shut and the goat jumped out. Nobody thought to cover the pen!”

So Garcia-Baab wants everyone to understand this: “I don't want anybody to show up here trying to save him or hurt him. We've had animal control out here several times; they've not been able to catch him; he does not want to be caught.”

By now, you’re probably wondering if people have attached a name to their four-legged friend.

Indeed, they have, several, in fact.

Barkley, for example, who majored in English Literature in college, is partial to “Estragon,” a character in playwright Samuel Beckett 's, “Waiting for Godot,” who is impulsive and prone to sleep and eat way too much.

Garcia-Baab, on the other hand, who did not major in English literature, offers another suggestion.

“Everybody has their own special name for the goat,” she said. “Mine happens to be Scape, as in ‘scapegoat.’”

Hearing this, the beast with the long horns rolled his yellow eyes, gulped down a mouthful of grass and left a deposit on the lawn.