FOREST GLEN — Every night, Shakur Islam brings two kids into his house to join his own brood.
Islam and his wife, Anisa, purchased four goats — two adults and two newborns (called kids) — to serve as pets and also as milk providers. At night, the goat kids are brought in from the backyard to join the Islams' three kids — Amani, 15; Maryam, 10; and Nusaybah, 9 — and their adult daughter Shamsa, 20, inside the Forest Glen house. The human kids sleep upstairs; the goat babies are in the basement.
"In the evening, we bring the kids in the house to play with the kids," Islam said, laughing.
Islam got the goats from Eric Staswick in Albany Park on June 13. The one-year-old adult goats, who are sisters, are named Hazel and Penelope, or Penny for short. Hazel gave birth to a pair of kids, Oreo and Coal, a few days before the Islams bought her.
Justin Breen says the family uses goat's milk for making cheese:
Islam said, for the most part, having the four goats around has been a big success. Goats are the only animal his wife isn't afraid of, and three out of his four children enjoy hanging out with them. Only Shamsa, a sophomore at Northeastern Illinois University, isn't a fan, Islam said.
"She won't even go in the backyard anymore, but the others love them," Islam said. "They're holding them all the time, putting them in tutus and stuff like that."
Islam and his wife also spend 30-45 minutes each morning milking Hazel by hand, producing 2-3 glasses of milk after it runs through a strainer to take out the chunks. He said the family has been drinking the milk straight, but he also plans to make feta cheese with it.
The goats don't eat the grass in the backyard, but they do consume shrubbery and bushes there, which Islam said he doesn't mind. He also feeds them hay, alfalfa pellets and what he called "goat chow" — a mix of grain and "little goodies they like."
"It's like heroin to them; they'll knock you down for it," Islam said.
Owning goats in Chicago is legal. John Holden, spokesman for the city's Law Department, told the Tribune earlier this year "there is no prohibition in the municipal code against keeping livestock animals."
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