Rain hammered the hillside orchard, the drainage channel below had turned into a muddy torrent, and halfway down the torn slope a baby goat was running out of ground.

Chest-mounted bodycam footage recorded on 15 October 2024 at 11:14:07 shows the moment a mountain rescuer, roped up in a climbing harness over a purple waterproof jacket, works his way carefully toward a small white-and-brown goat kid stranded on a narrow ledge of eroded soil. The slope beneath the apple trees has partially collapsed: exposed roots claw out of the mud, broken slabs of the retaining wall lean at angles, and brown floodwater rushes through the channel just below the kid’s muddy legs.

The goat is soaked through. Its coat hangs in wet strands, its thin legs are caked in mud, and it presses itself against the bank, turning its head toward the approaching gloves with wide, frightened eyes.

Two hands, no sudden moves

Rather than grabbing for the animal, the rescuer kneels and holds his position, letting his black-gloved hands come into the kid’s view slowly, one on either side. The goat shifts its front hooves on the crumbling ledge and lets out a quiet bleat, but it does not bolt.

Only then does he slide his hands beneath its chest and belly, taking its full weight before it can slip. The bodycam tilts with the effort as he guides the little animal upward, step by careful step, away from the broken edge and the water roaring below.

Firm ground among the apple trees

At the top of the slope, among the rain-dark trunks and red apples of the orchard, the rescuer sets the kid down on a wider patch of firm ground and keeps both hands on its body until its legs steady. The goat stands, dripping and trembling, but safe — its hooves on solid earth instead of collapsing mud.

In the background, the misty green hills fade into the rain, and the flood keeps pouring through the orchard channel. But the ledge below is empty now, and that is what matters.

It is a small rescue, measured in metres. For one baby goat, it was the whole world.