I'm in the market for some goats as pets slash lawnmowers. We have a lot of property and around the edges and hills where the bush hog can't reach are brushy areas that a goat would find heavenly. In perfect Matchmaker fashion, the desire has grown in my heart for these little creatures to join our family. By helping us maintain our property, they're going to get what they need and enjoy as well.

Searching for goats, I've had a bit of difficulty. Due to the mating season, I guess November isn't the best time of year to find young goats that people want to sell. I tracked some down, but they're either pedigreed and too expensive for my needs or are quite a distance for us to travel to retrieve them.

In my search for goats, I've learned a lot about them. I've talked with some wonderful people who were happy to share what they know. One gentleman, who didn't even have any goats to sell, gave me a tour of his little goat flock. While researching, I've learned we were mistaken about something. We thought goats could protect themselves fairly well with those horns, but we've learned differently. A coyote or aggressive dog will kill them. One lady told me she got a Great Pyrenees to guard hers after a local dog mauled one of her favorite goats to death right before her eyes.

A couple days later, while talking to an animal-loving friend, she too recommended a Great Pyrenees and suggested I get online and start a search for rescue places. These are really big beautiful white dogs that people think they want as puppies and then find they're too big to handle after they're grown. So I did as she suggested and while I was at it, I looked in the local paper for Great Pyrenees and found a lady selling a male and female. I called her and lo and behold, she breeds Great Pyrenees to guard her goat herd! She actually has 26 pregnant does right now! In March or so, she'll have plenty of goats for us to choose from because goats carry twins.

She only had the female Pyrenees left and she'd been holding out on selling it until she found someone with a lot of property for the dog to run. That's where we come in. We own 24 acres, but we're sitting in the middle of what used to be a 100-acre horse farm which is still undeveloped and will remain so. She described her Pyrenees which not only sounded beautiful and a perfect pet for our children and to guard goats, but was also economical for a Pyrenees and close by. So we drove up there last Saturday to take a look at the dog and her goat herd.

She gave us the tour of her entire farm - goats, pigs, chickens, geese, sheep, donkey, horse, rabbits and lots of cats which my 3-year-old adored and carried everywhere he went. We brought "Gracie" our new Great Pyrenees home and she's beautiful, smart and loveable. She's stolen my heart already. Isn't it quite serendipitous that my search for goats got me nowhere until I found the piece I was missing -- the dog to protect them? I certainly wouldn't have wanted to go get goats and then have the coyotes kill them in the first week or month! Once I found the missing piece, I found the goats.

That's the way life is. Sometimes we beat our head against the proverbial wall trying to make something happen or obtain something we want and nothing we do seems to work. Why the difficulty or the wait? Because we were missing something we needed first -- even though we may not have known it was missing -- perhaps it was knowledge, experience, resources, friendships or associations. Whatever it is, once those missing pieces are obtained, everything else falls into place effortlessly.

So the next time something's not working for you, dig a little deeper, do a little research. Is their something missing? Find your Pyrenees and you'll find your goats!

Marnie Pehrson, a mother of 6, has been highlighting truth and talent for 15 years. Whether it's writing a novel that spotlights individuals who've made a difference in the world or helping a talented entrepreneur create a platform for his life's work, Marnie underscores truth and talent in innovative and compelling ways. She is the creator of www.IdeaMarketers.com and helps experts promote their products and services online. For more information on her various projects and books, visit http://www.pwgroup.com. Contact the author, Marnie Pehrson , at marnie@pwgroup.com
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