This is not a trophy. It is a preserved skull of an animal that once lived a good life at my brother’s property in the mountains of Slovakia.
My brother created a ranch where he insists that his domestic animals enjoy a free range lifestyle. He lives there with his wife and two boys, several shepherd dogs, cats, two horses, at least 20 goats, and about 10 sheep. The animals stay at the barn at night locked up as the settlement gets occasional hungry four legged visitors.
Because the animals graze about anywhere they want, which conveniently serves as a free bush mowing service, the garden needs to be fenced in. It looks like the skull was hung on the garden gate to guard the produce so the humans in charge of this mountain paradise get to eat their fresh vegetables.
I like to think that this skull belonged to the billy goat named Divkin that lived there some 15 years ago and was amongst the first animals that were gifted to my brother when he settled there. Divkin was not a peaceful loving goat that is a common demeanor of his kind. I would say he had a bit of a difficult personality, rotten attitude, and apparently a weak judgment.
One time when I was visiting, my brother and I hiked up the half mile long trail to the house and as we came out of the forest and into the meadow where the house and the barn are positioned and built on leveled ground that must have been once dug into the steep back of the hill, we were first greeted by the happily barking shepherd dogs. Then suddenly, out of the blue from the side brush, came a charging goat headed straight for his master. At the last moment my vegetarian, animal loving, free-spirited brother performed some sort of a judo move that got the goat flying high until he landed on his side. I heard a thump and a thundering voice:
“Damn it, Divkin, you are going on a frying pan!”
For a story of a different goat that very much appreciated freedom read Meet Thora