Frostie the baby goat is being fitted with a wheelchair

AUSTRALIA -- Frostie is a cheeky, happy, little goat, who loves attention.

And the baby goat is certainly getting a lot of it, as he learns to walk with the help of a customised wheelchair.

Frostie, who is just over one-week old, was brought to Edgar's Mission, a not-for profit sanctuary for rescued farm animals outside of Melbourne, on Tuesday.

He was covered in lice, severely dehydrated and had lost the use of his back legs, due to an infection he contracted through his umbilical cord.

Pam Ahern, founder and director of Edgar's Mission, said that after a few days at the sanctuary being treated with antibiotics and painkillers, the little goat had improved so much that he began getting frustrated and trying to run around and play.

Frostie was fitted with a wheelchair, which allows him to run around using his forelegs until he recovers the use of his legs, which should happen as the infection leaves his system.

 The wheelchair was originally made for a baby pig named Leon Trotsky, now one month old, who was injured when his mother sat on him, crushing his hind legs.

The little pig, whom Ms Ahern says has 'so much spunk', has recovered enough that he was able to donate his wheelchair to his friend, Frostie, though Ms Ahern says that Leon is definitely 'too fast for Frostie to keep up with him.'

The little goat is one of 350 animals currently cared for on the sanctuary, which as well as pigs and goats is home to cows, alpacas, deer, sheep, chicken, geese, duck, rabbits, guinea pigs, peacocks, and horses.

 Edgar's Mission was started by Pam Ahearn after she rescued her first pig, Edgar Alan, in 2003 and realised that injured farm animals did not have the same help as native animals or pets.

'I was involved in fostering cats and dogs and rehabilitating native animals, and a lot of organizations do that and a lot of individuals do that, but they forget about farm animals,' she said.

'Just because they look different to cats and dogs, they're still animals.'

Sometimes the animals are brought to the sanctuary by members of the public, as was the case when locals found an injured two-day-old goat on Tuesday that they suspected had fallen off the back of a truck.

(Views Times - May 27, 2014)