COEUR d'ALENE - The cow is promoting the goat. The goat, with any luck, will show up at your office and chew your desk materials until you pay the keeper to take it to someone else, who will also have to pay to get the horned thing to shoo. So the cycle goes, with the goats making appearance after appearance on behalf of the kids. Wishing Star kids.

COEUR d'ALENE - The cow is promoting the goat.

The goat, with any luck, will show up at your office and chew your desk materials until you pay the keeper to take it to someone else, who will also have to pay to get the horned thing to shoo.

So the cycle goes, with the goats making appearance after appearance on behalf of the kids.

Wishing Star kids.

"What we're trying to do here today is we're trying to give back," said Marleen Schoenfeld, clad as a cow and handing out fliers promoting the goat giveaway outside the Silver Lake Mall on Wednesday. "Giving them a little extra publicity."

Why a cow?

Close enough, Marleen said, "It's a farm animal."

Very true.

And her daughter, Samantha, was by Marleen's side dressed as a farmer, handing out info on next week's event.

It's the least they can do, Marleen said.

Samantha was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was in the first grade. She has been coping with the condition ever since. They know it's going to be a lifelong struggle. But with Wishing Star it has been easier.

The nonprofit foundation, which has been granting wishes for terminally ill children in eastern Washington and North Idaho since 1983, has introduced Samantha through its numerous events to other kids sharing her struggle.

So dressing up promoting a goat sale was small beans by comparison, she said.

Passersby and would-be shoppers stopped for a laugh before taking the flier.

"They ask, 'What am I selling?'" Samantha said.

They're not selling anything, they're promoting a week of goats. They'll be doing it the rest of the week, too, as the fifth annual event, Send a Friend a Goat, begins next Monday and runs through Friday.

For $50, people buy a goat, which means the buyer chooses a person the goat will visit. Offices, classrooms, house calls, no appearance is off limits. The recipient then has to pay to send the goat, probably munching something by now, to someone else.

Last year, the event raised $17,000.

"Just like Wishing Star I've been making people happy," Marleen said, as the shoppers laughed at her costume and dance Wednesday. "That's what they do, they make the children happy."

"They help the kids with problems and make them feel better about themselves," Samantha said.

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