Give A Goat for Christmas!

Okay, as of October 19th, the Christmas Season is upon us.  Never mind that we're more than a week away from Halloween and a month from Thanksgiving -- means nothing!

Yesterday's mail brought the Heifer International gift catalog (heifer.org/gift)  These are the good people who give the well-off the opportunity to lift the less so out of poverty by giving people on the other side of the world from Fat Cat America such as a flock of chickens or a pig or a heifer.

If you have an aunt that is a knitter, give her the symbolic gift of four animals that provide the materials -- a llama, an alpaca, a sheep and an Angora rabbit to a family.  She's knitted plenty of stuff for you so fork over the $480 and buy this for her.

Someone to gift who has a medical interest?  The Community Animal Health Worker Kit ($200) can include a thermometer, stethoscope, hoof trimmer, scalpels, gloves, disinfectants and even important medicines.

Apparently this is a respectable charity - but do not consider this column as an endorsement under any circumstances; I'm merely reporting on an oddity -- because the late President Ronald Reagan awarded it the President's Award for Voluntary Action in 1986 and former President George H. W. Bush gave it the Presidential End Hunger Award in 1990.  The idea is that as the animals breed, the owner will give a neighbor one of the off-spring and they, in turn, will do the same. 

Prices are as low as $20 for a flock of chicks up to $5,000 for a Gift Ark which should cover the needs of an entire village.
2 cows
2 sheep
2 camels
2 oxen
2 water buffalo
2 pigs
2 beehives
2 goats
2 donkeys
2 trios of ducks
2 trios of rabbits
2 trios of Guinea pigs (meant to be bred and eaten!)
2 flocks of geese
2 flocks of chickens
2 llamas

Wonder if they'd deliver all of that to the States?  Talk about a conversational item!