SILVANA — If 12-year-old Sammy Day has learned anything in her two years of raising goats, it’s this: Frosted Mini-Wheats.
“Goats can be pretty stubborn, but you can get them to behave with Frosted Mini-Wheats,” the Camano Island girl said, as she groomed her colored angora goat, Shadow, at the Silvana Fair July 25. “It’s a common practice. A friend from 4-H got me into training goats, and it can be difficult, but it’s worth it when you see your hard work pay off.”
For Sammy, that meant seeing Shadow win the grand champion intermediate and merit awards.
Like Sammy, Lynden’s Grant Heystek has built up a couple years’ worth of experience in working with his animals. Heystek works with cows rather than goats, and confessed that he’s not entirely sure what got him interested in cows, but he agreed with Sammy that persistence is key.
“They are stubborn, but you just have to keep on training them,” Heystek said. “More and more, you learn to work with them and earn their trust.”
Granite Falls’ Lindsey Kramme has been breeding and showing rabbits and guinea pigs for eight of the 13 years she’s been alive, but it was only just last year that the American Rabbit Breeders’ Association recognized Lionhead rabbits, like Kramme’s 2-year-old Princess.
“I’d seen people with these animals at other fairs, so I wanted to give it a try myself,” Kramme said. “I got my first guinea pig at the Evergreen State Fair, and my first rabbit at the Stanwood-Camano Community Fair.
“Probably the hardest part is culling out their numbers,” she added. “I bond with them so much, but they breed so much that I have to cull about a third of them. But it’s worth it to hang out with animals and meet new people.”
John McGonigal of Lake Stevens was one of the adult entrants in this year’s Silvana Fair, bringing with him a variety of pigeons so unique that many spectators mistook for more exotic breeds of birds.
McGonigal took up pigeon breeding from his father in 1972, and showing his pigeons has taken him from Canada to Oregon. He estimated that he owns seven varieties of pigeons, including the puff-chested fantail and the flume-topped Jacobin, with a total of about 150 pigeons in his aviary. Some are quite expensive. The Jacobin alone costs $150.
“My favorites are probably the rollers, though,” McGonigal said. “I love how they tumble backward. Unfortunately, the hawks like them even more than I do, so I don’t fly them all that often.”
