Tink, the goat, arrives at her new home in Lowell, welcomed by three Border Collies and Smooch

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Tink, short for Tinker Bell, is a Nigerian dwarf kid whose back was injured during birth and needs special care. Jessi and Tim Osborn were granted permission by the Lowell Planning Commission to care for Tink at their Lowell home. This is an account of Tink joining the family, which includes three Border Collies and a cat named Smooch.)

By JESSI OSBORN/For The Herald — We officially made Tink a part of our family a week ago Friday. It’s a big change for a little goat to move from a pasture full of goats to a house with a menagerie of other animals. So, as you can imagine, it took her a little bit of time to acclimate and to get her bearings. We’re still getting to know each other as she warms up. We’re happy to have the honor of nurturing and loving her in her new strange life as a house goat.

The first of our “fur family” to welcome her was our biggest dog, Opie. He loves all things tiny. So, he greeted her with gentle kisses, assuring her he will not harm her. Tink is now most comfortable with him, and he keeps her safe.

She has been much calmer than we expected of a baby goat, which we are sure will soon take a turn. We’re prepared for cute chaos and destruction to come at some point. Our youngest border collie, Jax, wants so badly to play with her and tries his best to engage her, but she isn’t ready, despite all his hilarious antics showing her how much fun he can be.

She very much prefers to snuggle and does snuggle with him when he stops bouncing and running around like a crazy kangaroo.

When she does get the urge to play, she zeros in on our 19-year-old cat. Smooch is the nurturer of the household and the only one of Tink’s size. Imagine this as a sweet old granny with a heart and spirit of gold and a toddler wanting grandma to do handstands and cartwheels. It’s so sweet to see, but we discourage this and redirect her energy to kangaroo Jax.

The two most frequent questions we get are, “Where does she sleep?” and “Where does she go potty?”  As it turns out, goats are surprisingly easy to potty train. She goes in and out of the dog door and does her business outside. It took a whopping six hours for her to catch on to that routine. And because we are suckers and she’s a tiny little snuggle bug, she sleeps with the rest of us in a big ol’ pile of snuggle.

In the week she’s been with us, we have swiftly fallen in love with her and look forward to the many adventures ahead with her in our family. We’re so grateful for receiving approval to bring her into our home here in Lowell so we can give her the safe and healthy life she needs as she grows through her challenges from birth. She’s made great improvements so far, and we expect she will grow into a strong, lively, species-confused dog, I mean goat.

You can follow on Instagram @Tink_the_faery_goat where I share funny and adorable moments as they happen.