As Melvin listened to Bazzle, he couldn't help but get excited, but at the same time he was a little anxious. As the "Goatfather" he had been the guy who knew how to get things for his fellow goats and it had made him quite wealthy. Apparently word had gotten out to the other farm animals and now there was an opportunity for farm wide distribution...if he could make it happen!
The product in question was "Special Mix". Imagine a pie stuffed with cakes and candy, sprinkled with cookies, and topped with ice cream and you begin to understand how the animals feel about the stuff. Many an animal had fasted themselves for weeks just to get a small taste or to satisfy their need for a fix. The problem was two fold. First, the special mix was kept in metal cans which required thumbs to open. The second problem was more daunting; Even if he could get his hands on it, how would he be able to get it to the other barns while he was stuck here. His initial enthusiasm began to collapse under the weight of these obstacles. When Bazzle turned around to say, "Oh, and they need to have their first delivery in a week", all hope seemed to evaporate.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the tractor pulling up to the barn. It was one of the humans and Melvin immediately signalled to Bazzle to duck back into the wall of the barn. He never could be sure just what these people understood. Besides, while he valued Bazzle's work, he knew that he would not be any use in this situation.
Melvin rested his head against the gate and his gaze was fixed as his mind drifted into space, lulled by the on-going rhythm of the raking. So much straw! He felt sorry for these caregivers doing the same thing day in and day out.
Now, most people don't know this, but goats are the luckiest of all animals, and this was about to be proven once again. A second human entered the barn and a conversation began. The first human, who we will call "Brian", for the purpose of our story was discussing cleaning with the second human, who we will call "Mike".
"Hey Mike", Brian said, "We are running really low on straw in all of the barns except this one. Are we expecting another shipment soon?" Mike replied, "Yeah, I noticed that earlier when I was doing feeds. We are supposed to get more in a month or so and we should be okay as long as the usage stays the same." "I hope you're right", said Brian, as Mike began to walk out. Before he left, Mike added, "Well, if worse comes to worse, we will just have to move straw from this barn to the others".
It was an outside shot, but Melvin thought he may be able to use this information toward a solution for his problem. And maybe, just maybe, Bazzle would be able to help after all. He suddenly felt a little giddy, but tried to keep it from showing. He had appearances to maintain, after all.
It turns out that squirrels have long had an underground presence on the farm. Their tunnels connected all of the barns and even reached into the offices. It would seem that an easy answer to Melvin's problem would have been to utilize this as an underground distribution network, but everyone knows that you can't trust a squirrel with food once it has gone underground. Above ground, they can stay focused, if properly motivated, but once they are in the dark they go primal. No, what Melvin needed was help increasing the rate of straw consumption. As the wheels in his brain whirred and clicked, he began to envision an army of squirrels ferreting away straw from the barns and pooping all over the place in order to make the humans do more cleaning. If he could only make this work, he may be able to figure out the other challenge...with a little luck!
To be continued...
