My Mom's a Goat

When I first saw this title, I thought I might be in for an evening of science fiction mayhem along the lines of My Stepmother Is an Alien with Kim Basinger or My Mother the Car, the TV show starring Jerry Van Dyke as a guy whose dead mother was rein-car-nated as a 1924 Porter convertible. Much to my relief, however, My Mom's a Goat is not bad sci-fi, but instead a documentary about how a Canadian couple raised an orphan foal using a dairy goat as a surrogate mother. Unfortunately, the film starts out a bit on the corny side with a shot of the orphan horse frolicking in his pen to the country lyrics "Oh where are you my mama? You left me here, I'm all alone..." and the overall quality is borderline amateur. Still, this short video is densely packed with information on just how one goes about the process, including finding the right goat, bottle feeding vs. pail feeding, training the foal to nurse, veterinarian checkups, and weaning. Unlikely to have a terribly wide appeal, the program's footage of a young horse feeding from a docile goat was nevertheless quite charming. While it might be useful for horse breeders and enthusiasts, and therefore worth consideration by rural libraries and agricultural schools, this is optional elsewhere. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Asala)