One furry, little, four-legged guy took campus by surprise this semester, and quite frankly, we’re still not over it! This week’s profile piece is on the most famous goat to ever strut a college campus, and his proud owner, Chacho and Alek Soriano. I sat down with Alek, a brother of Phi Alpha Delta, and asked all of the questions that you (and me both) were dying to get answers to about Chacho the goat.
First, we should start with what persuaded a college student to purchase a goat… like seriously was the pet store all out of goldfish? Not quite. It turns out, Alek and a friend were interested in getting a pet and their natural progression of potential pet ideas happened to first be an iguana, then perhaps a pig, and finally they settled on a goat – to each of our greatest pleasure. Alek says “I never had a pet and a goat felt right” and we can’t seem to argue with that.
Now lets talk a bit about Chacho himself. You may be wondering, where did the name Chacho even come from? So was I, but unfortunately is seems to be an Italian Soriano family slang, so you’re just going to have to keep wondering. Believe it or not, when he isn’t being smothered by paparazzi and caffeine-driven students taking breaks in Alumni Grove, he’s just a regular goat. He enjoys eating “everything,” but especially hair, preferably from the heads of brunettes. He has a few tricks up his sleeves (do goats have sleeves?) like ramming things, jumping/kicking after being chased, AND climbing stairs! As previously mentioned, he certainly has developed quite a bit of fame around TCNJ, and unfortunately this sometimes gets the best of him and leads him to stress eat, but can you blame him?
If you haven’t noticed, Chacho has been missing from campus lately and to everyone’s dismay, rumor has it he has been sold. Unfortunately, I can report to you that is in fact true. Chacho has since been sent to a friend’s family farm. You can, however, wipe the tears away because he now has multiple chicken friends to keep him in good company! Surprisingly, it turns out that owning a goat is far too much of a time commitment for one college student, and so Alek made the noble decision to give Chacho to a happier home, stating “I love Chacho like a son, but I didn’t have the resources to take care of a goat.” Some final pieces of advice that Alek has for all of you prospective goat owners: goats need friends and understand that, similar to a dog, where they mark their territory, they will continue to pee.
Farewell, Chacho, you will be missed dearly!