Rude Awakening

I awoke with a start, lay there a moment wondering what on earth had woken me so unceremoniously. It took about five minutes of rapid blinking to realise that it was more or less light outside, but not very. I stuck my hand out from under the covers but withdrew it very quickly. Man! It was cold!!

I lay there for another few minutes listening and suddenly I heard it...a steady munching and a clippety-clop close by.

Honestly! This was the limit. I flew out of bed, pulling on a jacket while passing my warddrobe and jumped into a pair of shoes. Rushing down the passage to the kitchen I popped my head into my sister's room and yelled. Then I carried on running until I got outside. There, strewn like confetti all across our garden, were the goats. There were 17 in all, 12 of them little devils! Never did they miss out on the chance to sneak into our rose garden or into the herb patch behind the house.
And now there they were, munching away on not only our roses, but our fig tree as well. This was really more than I could bear. Those figs were delicious and it was total sacrilege to see the goats munching only a bite out of them before spitting them out. I was completely outraged!

I opened the gate leading to their camp and then started trying to round them up. I say try...because it didn't work quite that way. As soon as I had some of the kids in the camp, the others would crowd around so that I couldn't open the gate without the already caught kids escaping.

Those of my family members who were inside heard a frustrated wail start up and they must have decided to have pity on me and come and help because to my relief I saw some people emerging from different directions. A few minutes later we had them all where we wanted them and then we could go back inside and get some well earned coffee. It was only when we turned around that we noticed a few of the workers standing around in a group staring at us.

It hit us like a wave...our skin color changed from pale to deep red. What a sight we must have been, dressed in our pajamas, slip on shoes, hair all over the place, puffy eyes; chasing goats all over the garden. We did make some spectacular dives as well.
Hmmm...definately something to remember. Note to self: go to bed fully dressed in case of emergencies!