Billy the Goat

“Billy!” I shouted, “Stop eating my shoes!” Munch, munch! Like a goat would listen. I tugged the shoe out of his mouth. Ugh! Goat slobber. If my dad saw what Billy had done to my shoes, he would kill him! My dad hates Billy, but we keep him around. Me, my brother and my mom all like him. Tomorrow my dad has the most important job interview of his life. 

His job requires him to stay and work 10 hours each day, so we don’t get to spend much time with him. I’ve been trying to convince him to get a job at the zoo (he has wanted to work at a zoo his entire life). But there’s only one zoo that pays enough, and only the best can get a job there. He says that he’ll work at a zoo one day, but I don’t believe him. 

“Livi, get down here!” my dad yells. 

“Coming.” I say. I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. 

“Are you ready for school?” he asks. 

“Dad” I sighed, “it’s Saturday!” 

Then I ran outside to play with my little brother George, who is only a few years younger than me. I am 12 and in 7th grade. Suddenly Billy rushed out the back door and into the pool! I pulled out my phone and started to take an awesome video of Billy, goat-paddling. As soon as he got out, me and George escorted him into the shed so we could get him dry before my dad saw him. 

Finally, he was dry! I looked in the window, and saw my dad reviewing his resume. I didn’t want to bother him--he looked so stressed. So I stayed outside until lunch. For lunch we had fish tacos with a cold glass of lemonade! Out of the corner of my eye I could see Billy, trying to eat the pool stuff we had in the shed. After lunch we decided to go to the movie theater to see Frozen 2. I got popcorn, Swedish Fish, and water. George and mom split a large popcorn and Dad got nothing. He was in a mood. 

“Look at all the sparkly little balls!” George shouted halfway through the movie. I thought the sparkly balls (snow) comment was cute, but the audience did not think so.

"Shhhhhhh!" They all yelled. And that’s when we left the movie, to go get sushi! Talk about a good day! 

Once we got home I went to check on Billy. Turns out the rascal invited the goats from the Goat Yoga club down the street to come to our house. They climbed through the window, and went through the secret door in our fence! How do I know? They spilt paint and made footprints wherever they walked. Oh no! I hurried to clean the paint up before my dad saw it, but it was too late!  I could see all of his frustration on his face and said,

 “Put him in his cage.” I nodded without saying a word. After George went to bed, I decided to lay in my bed listening to my favorite songs. Turns out I felt a lot better after reviewing what had happened and what was going to happen. At 8:30 I wanted to go to bed. I dreamt about Billy doing some of the cutest things, while my dad (who I didn’t notice) was getting the worst of it! Then finally my dad had enough, he decided to put Billy down! Aaaah! I woke up, horrified, I had to keep Billy in his cage while dad was at his interview. But it wasn’t going to be easy, Billy was one of the smartest breeds. He would find a way to escape, he always does. 

It was 7:26  in the morning when I walked down the stairs to go eat breakfast. Dad had already left for his interview and George was still sleeping. 

“Livi, remember not to give Billy his usual two cups of food, it rials him up. Remember when he broke his cage because George fed him too much?” my mom said.  

“Huh?” I said not really listening. 

 “Livi, do you remember when- Livi? Are you doing ok?”  

“Yup, yup.” I faked. “Definitely.”  My mom sighed and went back to making breakfast. Once I had finished my cereal, I headed back upstairs to get dressed. Klopp, klopp! It took me half a second to realize what that sound was. I dashed to Billy’s cage, and saw George standing there with his mouth wide open. Then, slowly his hands started moving up to shoulder level, his fingers pointing to the left. So I went left and ran out the door as fast as my legs could go. Once I got to my dad's work, I rushed through the doors and there, standing in the elevator, was that crazy goat! The elevator doors were closing so I took the stairs. On floor three was my dad’s interview, so I decided to look there. Sure enough, the goat was walking through the door. Argh! I leaped into the air, aiming straight for the goat. Smack! I landed on my face! A few seconds later I heard gasps and murmurs coming from inside. Oh no! When I went inside I saw people from all over the city! Police boss, restaurant managers, even the manager of that awesome zoo! They were the people on the highest level of their companies or businesses. I looked up at Dad, he was shocked! I smiled weakly. He was mouthing “Get the goat out! Now!” I ran all around the room trying to get him, now he was headed straight for Dad!  

“Sit goat, sit!” he said. “SIT!” he yelled. Then Billy stopped in his tracks! And everyone started to cheer! I think it’s going to be in tomorrow’s newspaper. After the “incident”, Dad decided not to continue with the interview, he knew he wasn’t going to get the job. After about five minutes we (as in me and five security guards) escorted Billy to the car. Then we drove home. At home it wasn’t much better, everyone seemed down in the dumps--even Billy was sad, but he’s cuter when he’s sad! For lunch, we had sandwiches with OJ. Not my favorite, but I was in a mood, so I didn’t care. Afterward, we all took long naps until 5:00 and then it was time for dinner. Soup, and a movie night. Mom thought that some episodes of Bob Ross would cheer us up, but it just put me to sleep. Before I knew it, it was bedtime, technically just for George, but we all want to go to sleep. 

Tonight, I barely dreamt, I just kept shifting uncomfortably because of what happened today. But finally I got to sleep. When I woke up, I wanted to stay in bed forever, but I went into the kitchen anyway.  

“Where’s Dad?” I asked mom. 

“Outside reading the paper.” she answered. I walked outside to see him glancing at the newspaper then phone, newspaper, phone, newspaper-

“Dad, why are you excited?” I asked. 

“I got my dream job” he responded. “That zoo I’ve always wanted to work at, the manager was there, and he saw me taming Billy. So he has offered a job to me as one of the animal trainers!”  

“Pros?” I asked. 

“No interview, better salary, closer, less hours.” 

 “Cons?” I asked.

“None!” he answered. Wow! I ran into the hall to let Billy out, and as soon as my dad saw him, he gave him a million kisses! I don’t think I’ll ever see that again! Soon the whole family knew about it. My mom even wrote a book called “Billy the Goat”!

Once my dad finishes his career at the zoo, he plans to create his own shelter and take in stray animals! Billy is the best pet ever!