A stressed-out Brit was so fed with the hassles of modern life that he decided to become a hillbilly – as in a mountain goat.
Thomas Thwaites decided to ditch the trappings of comfort in favor of roaming the Swiss Alps as a grazing ruminant.
“I joined a herd of goats, they accepted me and I followed them down the mountain,” he told the Mirror of the UK. “I slept in a barn with them and even ate grass.”
His path to life on all fours among livestock took shape in 2014, when he entered a funk about his life.
“I work freelance so employment isn’t always regular,” he told the paper. “I was looking after a friend’s dog, Noggin the Irish terrier, and I was having a ‘what am I doing with my life’ moment. I thought, ‘Noggin, you are so lucky’ and began wondering how I might see life from that perspective.”
Realizing that life as a goat would actually be expensive, Thwaites wrote the charitable foundation The Wellcome Trust for an almost $40,000 grant, saying he wanted to use science and technology to turn into an animal.
After doing some research at the Royal Veterinary College, he turned to an expert at Salford University who specialized in prosthetics to come up with a goat exoskeleton.
Wearing the contraption, the sheepish Thwaites told gawkers, “Some of us want to fly like birds and I want to gallop like a goat.”
The transformed man spent three days with a herd in the Alps last year.
“It was incredibly painful to be in the suit. It was fine going up hill but when I had to stick with the herd coming down it was a nightmare,” he said. “All the points where the suit rubbed got blisters and bruises.”
How did the real ungulates treat their fellow quadruped?
“The goats were fine with me to be honest, once they got used to me they just went about their business,” he said. “One particular goat made friends with me and followed me all over the place.”
Thwaites wrote about his experience in “Goatman: How I Took A Holiday From Being Human,” which comes out May 17.