Obi
Obi was rescued in October of 2024. He had apparently been escaping from his farm and living on his own at different times often seen on the sides of local roads. He found his way to living on a vacant waterfront lot after losing his goat friend to stray dogs. The families on the street started to look after him when they were at the Lake. The lot was heavily hunted and wooded and certainly would have had a lot of predators. Obi was brave and strong and managed to live on his own for several months. At some point the owner tried to catch him and failed and finally gave up on him. I never got all the details on the timeline etc but knowing he was never going back to the farm he lived at, the family on the street found us and reached out to us to help.
After visiting with him on 12 different days, we were finally able to capture him. You can watch his story below. His story was so compelling that Obi went viral on his 1st Rescuanniversary reaching over a million views and gaining us a lot of Obi followers. After we got him, we got him checked out, he was actually pretty darn healthy, and he got castrated at NC State. After coming home to the sanctuary, we still needed to quarantine him. It was an interesting first few months of him trying to escape here, knocking down fence posts etc. We then tried him with our herd of goats that we thought he would fit best however they are extremely bonded and the boys did not want another boy to join. As sweet as Obi is, when he decides to headbutt, it is with full force and extremely hard. As I know animals will work it out, I couldn't risk anyone getting hurt. And actually one of our goats who had a slightly compromised horn had it crack even more. He is okay but it would not be good for his horn to continue to be hit this hard.
So after various trys to find Obi the perfect spot on the sanctuary (some of the animals find their spot immediately and others need a few trys), we created a brand new field adjacent to our woods so he would feel acclimated but with a very tall fence all around. He loves his field, he is connected to the barn so he has a big stall to go into during the day with a big fan in the summer and sees all our volunteers while they work in the barn, is next to all the goats at night and is surrounded by either the donkeys or horses nearby. One of the amazing families who took care of him helped build the pedestals in his field that he absolutely loves watching everything from. It took some time but Obi trusts me and allows me to pet and brush him. You still need to move slow but he loves to be loved on as well still loves his favorite goat treats.
The other awesome family on the street he was staying now sponsors him and we are so, so thankful.
Both families fell in love with him, wanted him to be safe and have visited the sanctuary several times to see him now looking like a completely different goat. And as i know having a goat friend is the absolute perfect scenario as we do know goats are herd animals, we haven't found Obi his perfect friend. We never give up. Everyone who visits agrees he is happy and content as I feel that way too. Obi's story will continue to evolve here at Little Buckets as all the animals stories do. It honestly is like a soap opera with some. LOL. Obi or his full name Obi-Wan Kenobi is now the master of Little Buckets so we know his story will always be like a soap opera or better yet a movie. :)
