Writing scifi: pack-goats in 20 years?

[DataPacRat]

Sounds like a fun project! My hope is that in 20 years a packgoat business will be allowed! Right now the government is giving a lot of packgoat outfitters a hard time because of the Bighorn Sheep issue. The North American Packgoat Association is pushing back and coming at them with science that says our goats aren't a disease threat to Bighorns, but it's hard to convince people in power when they are already sure they know everything.  

I can see that. I'm not sure I can incorporate it in the story, other than possibly an extremely brief mention in passing about lobbying.

I'm not sure I see much changing in the goat herding scene in 20 years. What we know now about keeping goats is rooted in a history that is thousands of years old--almost as old as humankind itself. It's thought that goats are possibly the first animals ever domesticated by humans. Science has helped us incredibly with battling diseases and injury during the last century, but good animal husbandry doesn't usually change much throughout time and across cultures because the animals' basic needs remain the same. That's why my neighbor can hire people from Central or South America who don't speak English and they can go to work caring for his goats and cattle right away with very little instruction. Animal husbandry is like a common language spoken all over the world.

One technological option I'm considering using in the story is dropping the cost of a GPS tracking collar to under $10, or even under $1. Being able to look at a smartphone and see the location of every individual in a herd might alter practices a bit; as might a slightly more expensive collar that records every heartbeat. I'm still trying to familiarize myself with current practices, though, so if any consequences of such tech are obvious to you, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If you want stories on packgoats, you might buy the Goat Tracks Magazine archive collection. I believe the magazine has been going for about 20 years, and there are so many wonderful tales there.

I'm afraid that I don't quite have the budget for that, but I'm already halfway through inhaling one of the online sample issues.

As for things passing, I'm not sure about that. I believe most undigestible objects become lodged in the rumen, which I once read is kind of like a sieve. I've read that when an older animal is opened up, there are often some strange things lodged in the rumen that have been there for years that could never pass but that never bothered the animal since they weren't actually blocking the rumen. I could be wrong about that though. When a goat eats something that disagrees with it, they usually react within 2-12 hours. A baby goat with diarrhea usually starts scouring an hour or two after feeding. If a goat's rumen gets blocked, they'll usually start to bloat within an hour or two. But generally if a goat eats a nail or a piece of plastic, you'll likely never see any ill effects, but you probably won't see the object again either.

Fair enough.

The particular hijink in question involves discreetly moving a half-dozen microSD cards from one location to another. I'd been thinking of putting them in a metal capsule somewhat smaller than a copper bolus (having previously trained those goats to swallow such capsules when they find them), then having those goats hired for a pack-goating hike into the nearby mountains, where the capsule would be left behind for later recovery. But if such a capsule would stay in the rumen, that whole plan requires a re-think. Maybe a visit to a vet with an endoscope to examine the stomach? There isn't a particular rush for the microSD cards to arrive, as long as they're not found, so the plan might be to just leave the capsule in the rumen for some time. Again, if any ideas occur to you on this, I'd appreciate your insights.