OTTAWA — It was a slow day in the tool rental department of Barrhaven’s Home Depot when Terri Legaarden walked up to the counter last month with two small pieces of PVC pipe in her hands and a strange request.

She asked Graham LaForge if he could cut the pipe lengthwise. Sure, he answered. Then he asked: What are you using it for?

Her answer surprised the 23-year-old, self-described city kid. To say the least. The pipes were for her goat, Legaarden said. She showed him a picture of Forrest, a tiny newborn goat born earlier that same day with deformed hind legs. She didn’t think Forrest would live more than a couple of days without some way to support his legs, so she decided to devise leg braces and needed help.

LaForge set to work.

He spent almost half an hour cutting and sanding the piping so it would support the goat’s legs comfortably. When a grateful Legaarden offered to pay for the work, he refused. “It’s for a living thing,” he said.

LaForge saw the results of his effort just over a week later. He was sitting in the break room at work when a co-worker paged him., saying, “Hey, there’s a lady here to see you.”

When he returned to his department he met Legaarden and Forrest, who ran around the store — his legs supported by braces LaForge had helped to make. Legaarden gave him a $10 Tim Horton’s gift card which the modest Laforge originally refused.

“She wanted to tell me how thankful she was and how happy that I was able to help.”

A month later, Forrest is thriving on the North Gower hobby farm where Legaarden, a therapist who works with autistic children, lives. The goat no longer wears leg braces. And the once tiny goat who had to be bottle fed every two hours by Legaarden and her partner in order to survive its early days has become a family pet. “He loves to come inside,” said Legaarden. Forrest, who now weighs between 15 and 20 pounds, sometimes hops on the couch and watches TV with the couple.

Legaarden remains impressed by the work LaForge put into helping her.

“He put such effort into it. He didn’t have to do that,” she said. “Without his effort, Forrest would not have been able to walk normally.”

LaForge’s manager has nominated him for a Home Depot award for outstanding community service.