BREEZY POINT — If you’re planning to anchor your boat along the sandy shores of Gooseberry Island in Pelican Lake, be careful of the wildlife.

They just might eat your food and try to steal your bikini bottoms. 

For the third summer in a row, the nearly eight-acre island has become a scenic vacation getaway for not only boats, but goats.  

Yes, goats.

The island is owned by Breezy Point Resort and is located about a mile away from the resort, but any boaters on Pelican Lake may come ashore, use the picnic tables and swim in the shallow and sandy waters. 

Breezy Point Resort chief executive officer Bob Spizzo said back in the mid-80s for a couple of years the resort would put as many as 10 goats out on the island to eat the poison ivy and keep the vegetation down. 

“Instead, the goats were getting spoiled by eating hot dogs and hamburgers,” Spizzo said with a laugh. “They each gained 20 pounds in a season. They weren’t going to eat the poison ivy.”

But resort guests enjoyed petting and feeding the goats. Spizzo said the resort no longer had goats on the island until three years ago when Breezy banquet waitress Arlene Morrisette offered to loan out a few of her goats for the summer. Spizzo had been telling her and other resort staff the history of the resort, including the story about goats on the island. 

Morrisette and her husband, Roger, own a herd of about 100 goats at their rural Outing farm. They raise and breed goats mostly for meat, primarily Boer and Savanna goats. 

Morrisette bottle-fed the four male goats that are now living on Gooseberry Island and they’re very friendly. For two years, Buddy and Bruno, both 4, lived there together. They were joined this summer by 1-year-olds My Guy and Firecracker. To identify them, Buddy and Bruno are the larger pair; Buddy has a brown head and eye while Bruno is all white. Firecracker has a brown head; My Guy is all white. 

In May, the goats are transported to the island by pontoon from the resort marina. They are picked back up and returned to the Morrisette’s farm in September where they spend the cold Minnesota months. These goats are considered pets and won’t be butchered and sold for meat, said Morrisette. She said the foursome will return to Gooseberry Island next summer. 

“I don’t want to eat them and I don’t want to sell them so if they can enjoy their summers on the island, that’s great,” said Morrisette. “I’m glad everybody enjoys them, that’s what they’re for.”

Bonnie Tweed, director of marketing and group services at Breezy Point Resort, said stories continue to circulate about the goats’ antics on the island. A bachelor party rented a pontoon and was out swimming at the island. When they returned to the pontoon, the goats had hopped aboard and eaten their food. On the resort’s Facebook page, one woman said Firecracker tried to take off her bikini bottoms by pulling at the strings. Another Facebook fan said the goats were his drinking buddies. 

One summer someone felt sorry for the goats and loaded them aboard their boat and took them back to the resort. The goats ended up in the buffet line during a convention.

“We had this buffet line and here comes the goats,” Tweed recalled with a laugh. “Can you imagine being a goat? Would you rather live in a farmyard or on an island?”

“They’ve got a tough life out here,” joked resort general manager Dave Gravdahl. 

Carol Meister, who works at the Breezy boat marina, said resort guests usually return to shore asking why there are goats on the island. They’re told they’re there to eat the poison ivy, which is true. 

“They’ll come back and say, ‘We had a goat jump in our boat,’” said Meister. “We had them jump in our boat last year. My mom was eating chips.”

Rita and Tom Hanegraaf of Rose Creek are staying at the resort this week with their three children, their spouses and four grandchildren. Last summer they were driving a pontoon to the island when the couple, who are farmers, spotted the goats, not something they expected to see along the waterfront. 

“I didn’t know what they were but I said, ‘I think they’re goats,” said Rita. “It was fun to see, though.”

“They’re real social animals,” Morrisette said of her goats. “They’re great for children to play with and they pretty much will eat anything. They come back very well fed.”

Morrisette said if boaters want to feed the goats something other than picnic leftovers, they love apple horse treats that do have nutritional value. Morrisette feeds her goats grains. 

“The people just love them,” Spizzo said of the goats. He said when the Breezy Belle takes passengers for a ride, the guests enjoy searching for the goats on the island as they pass by. “It’s been a fun thing.”

“It’s like an island petting zoo,” said Tweed. 

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.