It all started when Leanne Lauricella went shopping at Marshalls before Halloween. She was browsing the aisles when something caught her eye — a child’s duck costume, complete with a big orange bill and two webbed feet.
Lauricella runs a goat rescue group called Goats of Anarchy in New Jersey. She thought the duck costume would look cute on her baby goats, especially the newest rescue goat named Polly. So she bought the costume and took it home, not thinking too much of it. Little did Lauricella know just how much Polly would love that duck costume.
Polly is a baby goat with serious medical issues. She’s blind, has neurological problems that affect her eating ability and is severely underweight for her age. She also suffers from anxiety.
When Polly can’t find Lauricella, she frantically runs around the house, crying her heart out. Polly also has some weird habits, which Lauricella thinks are linked to her anxiety issues. “She’ll find a corner of a wall in the house, and she’ll just start sucking on the wall,” Lauricella told The Dodo. “So all the corners in our house have these little suck marks from her mouth.”
When Lauricella put the duck costume on Polly for a photo, something amazing happened. “As soon as I put it on her, she just instantly got calm,” Lauricella said.
The duck suit seemed to have the same calming effect as a ThunderShirt, or being swaddled in a blanket. But for Polly, the duck costume worked better than anything. “I tried a ThunderShirt – it didn’t work,” Lauricella said. “There’s something about that duck costume that calms her. She goes into a little trance. She just closes her eyes and she’s out.”
Now, whenever Polly has an anxiety attack, Lauricella puts her into the duck costume, and voila – instant calm. “She just calms down and goes to sleep,” Lauricella said. “Instantly. It’s become a thing that she’s known for” […]