A community have raised more than £200 for the treatment of a homeless goat that has been wandering around the village of Crowton for the past few weeks.
Gertude the goat captured the attention of all the village when she was first spotted roaming around two weeks ago, and after nobody in the village came forward to claim her, resident Rachel Prescott contacted police and DEFRA who said she could re-house the goat that everyone has affectionately called Gertie, once she was captured.
After wandering around the village for eight days, Gertie was finally captured and taken in by Kathryn Steer who has well and truly took her under her wing and nursed her back to health.
Rachel told The Chronicle: “This has been the talk of the village and is a real tale of community spirit. Gertie’s ID is out of date and it’s impossible to trace her owner. Kathryn has been looking after her in her stable and she’s in such good shape now that she is looking through the stable door whereas before she would just sit in a corner and shake.
“We’ve had a vet out and Gertie had mastitis of the udder. Kathryn has had to milk her every day to get rid of her sour milk, despite having no formal training than knowing about sheep! But she’s put on weight and now has a pretty funny personality!
“Kathryn takes her for a walk every day to get out of her stable. Gertie desperately needs to roam now but we need to wait to find a rescue centre for her to do this. You need high fences to be able to house a goat - at least 1.5m high. There aren’t any facilities here to do that and we can’t let her wander in case she goes near the road again and causes a danger on the roads.”
Rachel added: “The search is still on for a good home for Gertie and we have raised £200 for the vet to come and treat an infection so that is at least one thing off our minds.”
“I have had little contact from the RSPCA - it has been left to us villagers to set up a Crowdfunding page, pay for food and vet bills. We are still raising money and any leftovers will go to animal rescue centres,” she explained.
If you can help Gertie, visit this website
