Little Leaf has been to 41 states. She’s hiked iconic trails, canoed rivers and taken a hot-air balloon ride.
She is a goat — but to her owner, she’s a trusted travel companion. At night, they share a bed.
“She’s done more travel than most people in an entire lifetime,” said Kate Cramer, who saved Little Leaf when the goat was a sick newborn rejected by her mother.
Little Leaf has been to 41 states. She’s hiked iconic trails, canoed rivers and taken a hot-air balloon ride.
She is a goat — but to her owner, she’s a trusted travel companion. At night, they share a bed.
“She’s done more travel than most people in an entire lifetime,” said Kate Cramer, who saved Little Leaf when the goat was a sick newborn rejected by her mother.
Cramer, 44, rescued Little Leaf a few days after the goat was born in 2020. At the time, Cramer was living on a goat farm in Duvalle, Washington. She rented a room from a farmer just before the pandemic, after a few years of traveling and hiking around the United States.
“I grew up on and off farms,” Cramer said. “Animals were my comfort.”
There was a litter of goats on the farm, and one of the three goats was smaller and weaker than the rest. She had a white patch on her side that resembled a leaf, so Cramer called her “Little Leaf.”
“She licked my face like a dog,” Cramer said. “She was just itty-bitty.”
The farmer told Cramer the runt probably wouldn’t survive, as she had been rejected by her mother and was becoming malnourished. Cramer said she couldn’t fathom leaving the tiny goat to die.
“I’ve always been the person that stops and picks up a stray,” Cramer said. “Why would you not try?”
Cramer brought Little Leaf to an equine vet, who gave her a 10 percent chance of survival. The tiny goat had a weak heart, was hypoglycemic and had stopped using her legs. The vet showed Cramer how to bottle-feed Little Leaf and give her injections round-the-clock.
“Week after week she got stronger and stronger, until she finally started using her legs again and became a happy little goat,” Cramer said.
Cramer grew up around animals and had many unusual pets, she said, including a rat, a chinchilla, a ferret and a hedgehog. For a brief time, she had a pet goat when she was 10.
When Little Leaf recovered, Cramer decided to travel with her new goat across the country.
Research has found that goats are as skilled at communicating with humans as dogs are, and they can interpret people’s emotions based on the tone of their voices. They are also clever, friendly and inquisitive, making them good pets for some people.
“Goats are such curious animals,” Cramer said. “They want to check everything out.”
Cramer found a trailer on Craigslist, complete with a bed and kitchenette. She decided they could make do without a bathroom. After painting it purple, she hitched it to her Jeep, and the pair headed off to their first destination: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. That winter marked the start of their cross-country odyssey.
Over the past nearly six years, “we’ve hit almost every state,” Cramer said proudly.
Cramer said she has never been someone to stay still.
“I’m just a vagabond,” she said. “I grew up with such a broken family that I’ve never had a forever home. … I actually get uncomfortable if I stay too long in one place.”
Born and raised in North Bend, Washington, Cramer moved frequently while raising her daughter as a single mother. When her daughter moved to California for college in 2018, Cramer decided it was time for a new kind of adventure.
“I didn’t want to sit home alone anymore,” she said. “I went a little female Forrest Gump.”
She through-hiked the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, followed by the 2,653-mile Pacific Crest Trail the following year. Next, Cramer set her sights on hiking the Continental Divide — until the pandemic hit, derailing her plans.
So, she wound up renting a room at the goat farm — which led her to Little Leaf. Cramer said she felt lonely after her daughter left for college, and Little Leaf gave her a sense of purpose.
“She really grounded me and gave me something to take care of and focus on again,” Cramer said, noting that Little Leaf is house-trained. “She’s been my companion.”
Little Leaf is an American pygmy goat, and she weighs 50 pounds.
“She’s pretty travel-sized,” Cramer said, adding that Little Leaf acts more like a dog than a goat. “She is really well-behaved. … Just like a dog, she snuggles up with me.”
Little Leaf loves raisins, and she strongly dislikes getting wet.
“She thinks she’s going to melt in the rain,” Cramer said, explaining that Little Leaf is picky, particularly with food, and often changes her likes and dislikes. “Sometimes she loves bananas, and then she’ll go weeks where she’s disgusted by them.”
Cramer has taken Little Leaf to the Moonshine Arch trail in Utah, Cadillac Ranch in Texas, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota and the Chandelier tree in California. They’ve also visited the Hollywood Walk of Fame; the Coral Castle structure in Leisure City, Florida; and Monument Valley, Utah — at the exact spot where, in the film, Forrest Gump stopped running on Highway 163.
People often give Cramer and Little Leaf a puzzled look, and ask Cramer why she has a goat.
“It’s definitely a bizarre and unusual situation,” Cramer said. “It’s constant attention and questions.”
Cramer — who typically puts a bow on Little Leaf’s horns and dresses her in sweaters and jackets — said she always tries to share Little Leaf’s backstory and how she saved the goat.
“I think people think it’s great more than they think it’s weird,” she said.
Little Leaf has seen corners of the country most people haven’t.
“She’s been to all the weird, random landmarks,” Cramer said, mentioning the World’s Largest Working Fire Hydrant in Beaumont, Texas, the Fremont Troll sculpture in Seattle and the World’s Largest Pistachio in New Mexico.
Cramer is an artist, and she makes a living by doing commissioned paintings, portraits and murals, as well as face painting at children’s birthday parties and other events.
Cramer chronicles her journey with Little Leaf on YouTube and Instagram, in the hope that their travels can motivate others to consider a more adventurous lifestyle.
“I’ve gone through so much crap in life, like most people, but I’m an optimist,” she said. “I want to inspire people to just be positive and go do stuff; don’t be stagnant.”
Cramer said living in a 60-square-foot trailer is humbling.
“It’s rewarding because you’re forced to do things a little simpler,” she said. “It just kind of brings you back to what’s important; the connection you have with people and nature is so much more important than material things.”
Cramer recently upgraded her trailer to a roomier one, which she shares with her new boyfriend. Fortunately, she said, her boyfriend doesn’t have a problem sharing a bed with a goat.
As for Little Leaf, she seems to love being on the move and exploring new places, Cramer said.
“She is so used to the stimulation and go-go-go,” Cramer said.
Cramer hopes to visit all 50 states before Little Leaf’s travels end. The average lifespan of a pygmy goat is about 12 years.
“I promised her I would fill her life with adventure,” Cramer said.
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