Fitz in shock as goat vandals wreak havoc

Fitz’s JCR president has sent out an “incredibly distressing” email to students at the college, begging them to stop moving a wicker billy goat. It doesn’t get much more random than this.

That’s right. At the end of last term, Fitz undergraduates received a puntastic email from their JCR president, begging students to “let sleeping goats lie”, telling them: “don’t goat breaking my heart.”

The plea comes following the admission of a different kind of fresher at the start of last term: a wicker billy goat, hand made by a veterinary fellow for the college.

Row row row your goat.

The billy goat has long been a college mascot, and there are images of goats on the college boathouse and the boathouse flag.

Naturally, the wicker goat quickly became something of an obsession for Fitz freshers, with students posing with him, moving him about college and, eventually, breaking off his ear, much to the dismay of his creator Dr.  Angie Tavernor.

This just goat serious.

One Fitz fresher told The Tab that “Billy (as me and my friends have come to know him) is like an old family member. We look to him for love and support.

“Some members of college have become obsessed with him… They literally live for the goat… Evidently we didn’t look out for this Fitzbilly because we got an email from the JCR pres.”

Two goats one whiteboard.

Indeed, Angie was forced to ask the JCR to circulate an email, “concerned he can’t take any more man-handling from merry students”.

“He was a labour of love, he has a finite life before he rots and I’d so appreciate it if he could live out his 2-3 years of life in peace and be enjoyed by all.”

The show must goat on.

The Tab has been in contact with Angie, who told us she has “been willow weaving for about 3 years – making baskets and sculptures”.

Initially, Angie “hadn’t intended him to be on public show, just as a laugh for general admissions last summer, but since then he has wandered around the college grounds popping up in different locations on an almost weekly basis.

“I was challenged by the Master’s husband (Christopher Padfield) about a year ago to make a billy goat (Fitz’s mascot). I decided to have a go although I’d never made anything that large before. He took me a week to make. He will last about 2-3 years before he rots.”

You have goat to be kidding me.

Angie tells us that, being a vet, she feels “a duty of care for him.

“I have had to ask the students not to move him but leave repositioning to the gardeners as overly possessive students last term moved him back to their court and pulled his tail off! (since repaired).”

So please, students of Fitz, leave Billy alone.