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Matt
grew up in Green Springs in north-western Ohio, living his earliest years on his family's
dairy farm of Brown Swiss cattle. His father, Thomas Craig, sold off the
herd in the late sixties when many small family-run dairy operations were
being competitively replaced by larger, corporate dairy operations. His father
took a managerial position with the Kroger Food Store in town and his mother,
Joyce, returned to college to earn her degree in Elementary Education. But
the family remained on the farmstead, leasing the acreage they previously
worked yet allowing Matt and his siblings to still grow up in a country
atmosphere. Matt fondly recalls he, his brothers, and their friends, all
playing basketball throughout the winters in a full-sized court they created
out of the old hay loft in the cow barn.
Linda
was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and moved to Cincinnati in the sixth grade
when her father, Richard Gregg, took a teaching position with the Ohio College
of Applied Science, now part of the University of Cincinnati. With the move to Cincinnati, her mother, Harriet, returned
to her chosen profession of Nursing with a large family-oriented clinical
practice. While Linda grew up in the suburbs, she was always deeply interested
in all animals and shared that interest with a next door neighbor, David Oehler, who now
happens to be one of the Avian Keepers at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her family
had dogs, cats, parakeets, mice, and goldfish. Box tortoises and toads would
occasionally be kept temporarily, then released back into the wild. Linda
even owned a white leghorn rooster for a time - an extra chick the high school
zoology teacher allowed her to take home from an order for a class science
experiment.
Matt and Linda met in 1981 while still undergraduate students at the University
of Cincinnati - Matt in Civil Engineering and Linda in Anthropology. They
relocated to the Dallas area in 1983 after Matt accepted a position with
Halff Associates, Inc., an Engineering and Scientific Consulting firm. Linda
went to work for a small management consulting firm until she returned to her studies
at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1992, where she finished up her
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology within a year and then continued on with
her graduate studies in the same department. Matt finished his Masters of
Engineering in Civil Engineering with an Environmental focus also at
UTA. They married in May of 1986.
After living for awhile in an older East Dallas neighborhood, and having acquired between them three dogs and two cats (and a few goldfish!), Linda and Matt found the house
they wanted with a few acres plus a barn in Red Oak, Texas, in the Spring
of 1987. One of their neighbors just happened to have three Spanish, or "scrub,"
goat "nannies." And the Craig's young English Bulldog, Obie, just happened
to enjoy chasing after them on the occasions when he had slipped under the
field fencing! Linda was dismayed - she knew that such behavior was intolerable
for a dog living in the country around livestock. She began immediately to
find another home for him. It was during a conversation with Obie's obedience
class instructor that Linda was advised to go buy a goat herself, and to teach
Obie that the goat was a member of the family...and Obie would have to learn to behave
properly at all times around it. She first laughed at the idea - but
then she went home and talked with Matt. They agreed to make a serious attempt
to remediate Obie's bad behavior. Within a week, they had located a six-month
old nubian-alpine cross that was being retired from a petting zoo and was
socialized to dogs. "Soozie" came home with the Linda and Matt - opinionating
loudly, her airplane ears standing out and moving like directional antennas
all the way to Red Oak, as she rode in the back of their Subaru station
wagon.
It was only a short time - less than a week - and Soozie had endeared herself
to both Linda and Matt. She followed each one around whenever they were outside,
running circles around them or "pawing" them if they were not paying her
enough attention. Linda bought a couple young sheep, barbado wethers, and brought them home to be Soozie's companions. Soozie immediately had them following her mesmerizing
lead, and it was apparent that she enjoyed the power! But it was also soon
apparent to both Matt and Linda that Soozie was not as sound in health as
she should have been. With the purchase of the wethers, Linda noticed that, in comparison to those of the wethers, Soozie's knees were very swollen and seemed warm to the touch.
Then, Soozie developed a sniffle and a cough that turned into a bad respiratory
infection. They took her to the vet who prescribed ampicillin. It worked
for awhile on her infection, but as soon as the dosing stopped her respiratory
problems began to return. A second treatment came and went with the same sequential results.
Linda went to the public library and brought home as many books as she found on
dairy goats and goats. It was in these books that she first read about CAE
(Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis) as well as Mycoplasmosis. Soozie's condition
might indicate either. Because of her age, Linda felt it was most likely
a chronic Mycoplasmosis infection and that there was a great likelihood that
she might pass it on to the wethers if this was the case. The third trip
to the vet was Soozie's last. The cloudy aspirate from one knee did suggest
Mycoplasmosis. Soozie was quietly euthanized...and Linda internally railed
against her own ignorance as well as the conditions that would have caused
Soozie's infection in the first place - perhaps at birth, perhaps later at
the petting zoo. She knew that it could have been prevented, but that Soozie's
former owners had not cared enough - and a vibrant life was short-lived because
of disinterest.
[Continued, click here!] –>
Last updated December 15, 2000
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