The Great Goat Rescue

Wednesday, Imp... finally got a call from someone who saw our missing goats. They live over a large hill from us across the river. They saw three goats on the bank of the river on our side. Unfortunately, the hill is steep with cliffs, and that section is accessable only by boat, goat, or railroad(the tracks are there). As she is talking to this person, she gets another call from someone who works maintainance on the tracks, who had heard a goat, was rather puzzled, so investigated. He saw Cori-(short for Coriander) by the rock fence next to the tracks, bawling his fool head off. He noticed a collar and went to try and catch him, but Cori took off up-hill. He was dragging a hind leg, but the guy couldn't go catch him(his boss was grumbling). He met us that evening at the start of the access road to the tracks, and led us down to where he saw him.
We drove a nice bumpy gravel track with trains passing by...even got to drive through the stone tunnel under our road (we figure we'll tell Implet about it around his 18th birthday...no need for a jealous 6 year old!), then got out and walked and called and made goat noises (Picture 3 middle aged adults walking by a train track going "Nahhhahhahh, naahhahhahh. Here Pretty goats. Cori, Rosemary, Bojangles!"). I though I heard a response once, but wasn't sure. Well, we figured we'd come back later, when the guy decides he's going to see if he can tell where the goat went-the hillside where he'd tried to catch him was extremely steep, and all loose soil. He climbs up and sees torn up ground to the left, a bit of a ledge and goes that way.
After a few minutes he hollers that he sees him, he's under a rock overhang, can we come up. So Imp... and I head up, he has to come down and give us a hand up in a spot where there were literally no handholds we could reach, but we found Cori in a deep cut about 3" high and narrowing as it went back. I bellied down and got to where he could smell me and I could touch him. He was standing there scared stiff. I finally got a leash on his collar, and Imp... mostly dragged him out. I ducked to keep from getting a hoof in my face and just got a faceful of dirt. Cori's hips seemed to have a problem, and he was putting no weight on his left leg. Mitch (I think that's his name) announces he's going to carry Cori down. Soft loose soil is much easier going down than up-we slid on feet and butts, Mitch with a scared 70# goat on his lap. One spot where he had to hand him down to me, then we were at the fence.
Injured or not, Cori KNEW the big noisy scary things come by that fence, and we again had to drag him under. He was trying to run on a bad leg-well, two, since the other hind leg seemed none too stable. But we got him out, and stood around and examined his leg/hips. Mitch did not really want to be called a hero, but I think he is. Cori wasn't as appreciative-he bit him(not bad)once we were down. A few more days, and Cori would have died alone in a cave, or fallen down the hill again trying to get food. We put him in my car, where he was perfectly happy to have some goat kibble and look out the window. I left Imp... at her car to go get our kids and went home.
I got home and lifted Cori out of the car. He immediately started to try and get back to the hill across the street, bawling for his sister and his buddy. Damn goat is strong as hell for only having front legs to pull with! I called Imp... and told he to watch out, I couldn't get him out of the driveway, he was trying to get back to the others. She got home, and between the two of us, we got him up near the house. We decided to just tie him out, since it did not look like rain, and the dogs and pigmy goats could hurt or at least annoy him(besides, how would we get him through the kitchen?).
The dogs were going ballistic in the run, the pigmies were nahhing, and one of the cats came by and said hi. Cori suddenly perked up, and insisted he go into the house and see his buddies. He walked-not real steady, I had to lift him on to the porch-up and through the kitchen to the back door and out to his run, where he flopped down to rest. The dogs were beside themselves with joy at having their goat back. I was scared that with him crippled he'd be prey, but neither dog seems to feel that way.
We had the vet come by today-having a vet school near is wunnerful-and he brought a couple students. Cori has a possibly broken back. He got a cortisone shot, the babies got their shots, and all 3 got wormed for good measure. Now we just need to see if he gets better. He's eating fine, is alert and not terribly depressed(though he does NOT want to be left alone). He hobbles to a spot with good eats, flops and lays there nibbling until all the good stuff is gone, gets up, hobbles a few feet, and repeats. I'm hoping for a recovery. I'm hoping if we take him up to the top of the hill and he calls, his sister will come...she was the tamest to start with, and if we have her, Bo will probably follow.