Small herds of the Dogodan Pygmy Goat are a common sight when traveling through the Alianian Hills, aptly named for its small stature. Mostly peaceful this creature supposedly migrated there for its absence of predators. Not surprisingly the Dogodan hobbits soon took these common goats to their advantage, using them for milk, draft, and even meat.

Appearance. With maximum heights topping off at three fourths of a ped, and weighing up to one pygge the Dogodan Pygmy Goat is a small animal. The goat has relatively short legs for its body; however this is usually followed by a large hoof in proportion to the legs. These legs are covered a third of the way down by a white stocking, and the rest of the two thirds is usually a lighter tone of the body coat which can be many shades of brown, gold, and black. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat also has a large belly, which upon dissection was said to be filled with many organs, which in turn were filled with grass. This belly leads up to a straight strong back which is covered in a darker coloured stripe than the rest of the body.

Leading up to the head the neck slopes very smoothly upwards to reveal a head. The muzzle of the goat is mostly long and narrow, and the sides of the face are dotted with two large eyes that are usually blue. On top of the head lie large ears, said to prevent overheating. Also on top of the heads of males are large one fore horns which are relatively straight except for the slight curve backwards. Overall the Dogodan Pygmy Goat is very stocky and strong, not too different from the neighboring hobbits.

Special Abilities. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat is relatively mundane besides two things. The first is the massive amount of milk produced by these small goats. Some Dogodan hobbits have reported three firkins a day, most likely due to the fact of the massive amount of grass eaten every day.

The second special ability of this goat is its aggressive behaviour towards predators. They can inflict a massive amount of damage with their horns on threatening intruders. Most leading males can cause huge gashes in the side of a grown man, and sometimes kill with one hit.

Territory. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat lives throughout the Alianian Hills in small congregations, usually avoiding the wooded part probably from fear of boar. These goats are not found anywhere else in Caelereth, however skeletons suggest they once lived in the Seanian Swamps and migrated to the Alianian Hills to escape the treachorous terrain.

Habitat/Behaviour. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat lives throughout the open plains of the Alianian Hills, living in small twenty or so herds. These herds slowly travel across the plains, eating the desirable vegetation on the way. These goats never stay in one place, and where they go is decided by the patriarch of the herd who is also its defender. When traveling like this a loose spotty formation is formed leaving about half a dash in between each goat. If danger forms however all the goats either start to stampede in one direction, or gather into a tight herd with the patriarch at front and the babies in the middle. If the goats choose the second method to fend off danger then the patriarch, the strongest male in the herd who is frenquently challenged, will usually just threaten the predator by grunting and stamping his feet, if this doesn’t work he will charge injuring all but the best armoured enemies. Most of the time the goats will just choose to run, for they can outrun a human quite easily, however these techniques will probably never need to be used because of the lack of predators.

Diet. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat has a vast diet, and can eat most vegetation on the Alianian Hills including the numerous acorn grass, however these goats will usually eat their preference of food unless starving. These goats' favourite food are fresh new acorn grass, all flowers, and a common treat… the acorn. Dogodan Pygmy Goats can eat quite a volume of food, but they drink even more water thus resulting in a large production of milk.

Mating. The mating of the Dogodan Pygmy Goat is quite interesting, and occurs once a year, these times can vary year to year due to the Alianian Hills' mild weather. Whenever a female does mate she’ll only mate with the patriarch of the herd, thus sparking some competition between males. At this time the males are very aggressive and will try to kill any intruders on the herd including halflings. If a non-patriarch male does want to mate he must challenge the patriarch and a fight ensues with the males headbutting and seeing who will back off first. Whoever wins will mate with the female, who will have a gestation period of about four months. After the baby is born it looks like a skinnier, graceful looking version of its parents. The baby will nurse the mother for about two months until he can eat grass, from then on he will become more independent until finally dispersing as an individual into the herd. Throughout the juvenile stage of these goats the herd defends them at all cost.

Usages. The Dogodan Pygmy Goat is a very valuable part of the Dogodan hobbits' lives. The hobbits will capture a female goat by coaxing it with a treat, and then domesticating her. She can be used for draft, milk, and in dire times meat. This goat however is only kept by some, others see it as too much work.

25th Dead Tree 1667 a.S. Information provided by Aurora Damall