Goat: A four-legged animal with hoofs that holds an endless fascination for me, Relentless. That's our working definition. And just in case you have never seen a goat in your life, please refer to the picture above (minus the obvious smirk).
One thing I learnt (that's not the only thing I learnt o) in secondary school was that there were certain differences between ruminants and non-ruminants. Of particular note is the fact that
ruminants ruminate, i.e. they
chew the cud and non-ruminants don't. A goat is a ruminant, therefore, it 'chews the cud.' It also has 4 stomachs: rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum.
What on earth is the cud? It's the undigested food that the goat regurgitates and chews again. For the purpose of this blog post, that is all you need to know. Just in case all this goat talk has stirred a desire to explore the cud-chewing process, you can read more
here.
So, why is any of this important?
Well, I am glad you asked. You see, those four parts of the stomach I mentioned, are actually the
shaki (tripe) that some of us use to cook vegetable soup. And other things. But that's not my point.
My gripe is with the chewing of the cud.
