A pet goat named Raisin, who lived in Chilmark, died of pneumonia last Wednesday.
Raisin was a local and national celebrity, admired both by his owner, Tom Ashe, and the Island community, and a much wider audience, after he was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman. Seth Meyers, who is married to Mr. Ashe’s daughter, Alexi, gushed about the pet goat when he was Letterman’s guest in 2009 and again in 2010. “Working in show business I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many goats. But none stole my heart quite like Raisin,” Mr. Meyers told the Gazette this week.
As a kid, Raisin faced an uncertain future. Chris Fischer, who owns and operates Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, had been given Raisin by his cousin Emily Fischer of Flat Point Farm. Mr. Fischer attached Raisin to his property, hoping that the animal would mow his land. A friend of Mr. Fischer’s suspected he planned to slaughter and cook Raisin, and stole the goat. Mr. Fischer recovered the goat from a home on North Road with Mr. Ashe’s son Tolya, a private chef, and returned him to the Ashe family home.
Mr. Ashe insisted that they adopt the goat as a member of the family. “He fell in love with it and why wouldn’t you?” Mr. Meyers said on Letterman. Mr. Letterman flashed a picture of Mr. Ashe and Raisin making eyes at each other on a livingroom couch, and another of the pair in the front row of a car.
Raisin’s summers were as active and fun-filled as any Vineyard kid’s, making him a familiar face to many up-Islanders. Mr. Ashe and Raisin were frequently seen at Lucy Vincent and Philbin beaches, where he bypassed the “No Dogs” policy. Raisin was also a regular at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, where his charm and friendliness endeared him to the local community. He was as much a fixture on the porch of the Chilmark Store as any human, and if the Ashe family went boating, Raisin would go too. “He was such a big part of summer,” Mr. Ashe’s daughter Ariel told the Gazette.
The goat was also a prizewinner. He regularly claimed blue ribbons at the annual Agricultural Fair for oldest competitor, and once joined film director and Chilmark resident Doug Liman’s pair of goats to win “Best Island Herd.”
When Mr. Ashe would return to his native New Mexico in the off-season, Raisin lived on North Tabor Farm, where the farm’s manager, Rebecca Miller, boarded him with other animals. There, he lived in a pen with two other goats, a cat, and a goose. “They all lived together and slept together,” Ms. Miller said.
During the summers, Raisin lived a life that was unusual for a goat, but in the fall, winter and spring, he was treated like a regular goat. “What was nice about his life with Tom and with us, was with Tom he was like an only child, and was treated like a dog or a human who got to go everywhere. And when he was on the farm, he got to be a goat and an animal,” Ms. Miller said. Raisin nibbled on bark and grass at North Tabor Farm, and wandered the property, but didn’t go on walks, to the beach, or ride in cars, leaving him with few opportunities to interact with humans. “When he wasn’t being famous he would come here and do some introspective work, I guess,” she said.
Mr. Ashe and Raisin were emotionally tethered to one another; Raisin would become visibly excited whenever Tom showed up at the farm to retrieve him. “He really loved Tom,” said Ms. Miller. “Anytime Tom came over here he perked up, and would jump right in the car with him and they’d go off on an adventure,” she said.
Ms. Miller is thankful that Raisin introduced her to Mr. Ashe. The pair regularly exchanged emails throughout the year; Ms. Miller said Mr. Ashe would ask for photographs of his dear pet, and became concerned whenever a storm was expected to hit the Island. “He was always thinking about him,” she said. “When the weather was bad, or if it looked like there was going to be a northeaster, he would email me, and ask if everything was going to be okay.”
Raisin linked Mr. Ashe to many other friends, and might even have inspired a trend. Mr. Liman met Mr. Ashe and Raisin during one of their regular walks on Squibnocket Beach. “Raisin was friendlier to me than Tom was,” Mr. Liman recalled.
A few years later, Mr. Liman adopted his own goat, a female named Ruby, after he had hired her to clear a rocky piece of his property. “The goat came about because I was trying to clear land, but the idea that your goat could be more than a farm animal, that they could be a companion, was totally inspired by Tom Ashe and by Raisin,” he said. The pair of goats quickly became inseparable. “Because I had seen Tom take Raisin to the beach, I decided to take Ruby to the beach, and Tom and I and Raisin and Ruby would all go to the beach together,” Mr. Liman said.
Raisin, who was nine years old when he died, lived a relatively long life for a goat. Male goats tend to live less long than females, partly because the stress of going into rut yearly wears on them. But Raisin’s active lifestyle, undying love and affection of his owner, and many, many friends, kept him young for years.
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