Feeding the rabbits was a privilege on our farm and was the favorited one among extra chores. Especially because our rabbit had just had babies. Extra chores were anything that didn’t include feeding the turkeys, like caring for the three goats, one sheep and couple of roosters.

I took no time changing their water, attempting to hold them with no real luck, petting their soft ears and backs and filling their small bowl with food. All of a sudden, Rambo, our Nigerian dwarf goat with pointy horns and a sturdy small but mightier frame came around the corner and was galloping at me full-speed, aiming right for me. “How rude interrupting the best chore” I thought to myself as I braced myself.

I barely stood tall enough to reach the rabbit cage door but I was wearing my steel toed fireman’s boots my Dad bought me, which was a true mark of being a real farmer. He had a small goat-complex which made him extra mean which is why we called him Rambo. He hit me so hard in the stomach that it almost knocked the wind out of me, kind of like that time on the ice when my stick got stuck in a crack and the butt end jabbed me so hard I actually got the wind knocked out of me. “I survived that” I thought “so I know I can survive this-my nine-year-old brain uttered to me.

I did the only thing I knew to do which was to give him a swift boot to the head to get him off of me and away long enough so I could make a mad dash for the farmhouse. He had recently won the fight with Sammy the goat over Molly our only female Nubian goat so he was especially aggressive these days.  As I ran and crashed onto the couch I felt so brave and strong that I was able to handle this on my own and for a moment I even forgot that my parent’s were getting divorced. I thought though I was pretty darn tough and that I could handle anything if I could handle that. “All by myself. Always a big deal when you’re the youngest and smallest and always lagging behind my stronger, swifter older sister Suze.” I thought. This time no one was there to help me and I conquered my fear of being bucked right there beside the old turkey barn. Who knew this would be the moment. I sure didn’t but the moment it was.