In The Absentee, by Maria Edgeworth (1812), the lads go to visit Count O’Halloran and are ushered into his study where he has some sort of menagerie, as you do. Colonel Heathcock cries ‘Zounds! what’s all this live lumber?’ and the goat and eagle attack him, probably for speaking so foppishly. After the ensuing pratfall and a bit of a scuffle, the cute little goat has a nap, ‘submitting philosophically to the loss of one half of his beard’.

I can already see Hugh Grant as Heathcock in the screen adaptation but if anyone knows of a suitable goat to cast in the starring role, please comment below.