Last week I mentioned we had a life and death struggle with Bennie our pygmy goat. It was December 12 and Bennie seemed constipated so I gave him some mineral oil. He is usually very vocal but this time he seemed to be singing a different tune. Thank God for wives. Jill has great instincts and thought it was a urinary blockage not constipation and if we don't react fast the bladder could burst and Bennie would be toast. A wise man listens to his wife ... we phoned the vet and as always she was correct. The vet tried to insert a catheter. It sounds comical but it was a matter of severe urgency. To add to the seriousness of it all, the vet stated with honesty that he had performed this process many times but was never successful because the urinary tract in a goat has an "s" shape which the catheter has a hard time navigating. To add more complexity ... Bennie was so bloated we could not find his "pepe". Boy did I ever wish I bought a better endowed goat. After fooling around for about an hour we had 2 choices. Put Bennie down before the bladder burst and caused a painful death or send him to Guelph university. They were the only ones that could operate on him to insert the life saving catheter and clear the urinary blockage. I guess we are suckers for animals ... off to Guelph we went. A long story short .... they fixed Bennie, and everyone there was terrific especially Dr. Judith. Bennie came home Dec. 24 very sore and vocal. What a terrific Christmas present for both Jill and I. Actually that was our Christmas present to each other. We couldn't afford to buy anything else. Seeing Bennie's smile when he came home was really worth it. He's doing well now but we have to keep him penned up for a few weeks until he is all healed up. He hates that and also his special diet .... only hay, no grain for a few weeks and no alfalfa.