Meet Trixie and Dixie. Our Barnyard bandits. The Dastardly Duo. Just kidding, these two are sweet as pie. Although in the picture below, they look quite serious, like they are determining the best moment to ram their rock-hard horns to knock me on my butt. It looks like Trixie has made up her mind (devious), and Dixie isn’t re-thinking Trixie’s proposition.

Trixie is the pygmy on the right, beautifully tri-colored, and Dixie is the beautiful black, half-fainting (but never has), and half-pygmy Goat Queen on the left (Thank you Captain Obvious!) Dixie is the leader of the duo and is much more comfortable with the human touch, while Trixie is skittish but tolerates us when we have treats. User.

How did we choose such great names for such cute, little goats? Let me tell you the tale. I don’t know when it first started, but my twin sister and I made up these personas called Trixie and Dixie. We make our bottom jaws recede and use a different voice with lip-smacking noises, made worse by the excess saliva build-up. We are aware that twins do weird things…this is one of them. And no, I don’t know if I’m Trixie or Dixie. That’s part of what makes it so funny (to us anyway). I’d add a picture of the original T&D, but it isn’t really a good look.

Over the years, Trixie and Dixie are just fun “people” we bring out, and surprisingly, or not, wit and intelligence exude from them. So when my husband and I decided to get two goats, it made sense to me to pass on two great names!

The chickens and the goats share space in our barn. The goat pen is the first area and on the back end of that is an enclosed chicken coop. The chickens can come and go through the empty screen on the coop’s door, but the goats cannot get into the chickens’ abode. If they get in, and they’ll try as soon as the door is opened, they will knock over the hanging food dispensers while trying to eat all the food. If you aren’t careful when gathering eggs you’ll find yourself with hairy company. ”Trixie, go on! Get out!” and “Dixie, I told you once already!” Man, they know how to put me on high alert.

In the nicer months, from when the snow melts and the grass is lush and green to the time when the air is crisp and the leaves are falling, the animals (and children) have free rein on our land. Trixie and Dixie stay pretty close to home, with the chickens on their heels, and will run back to the barn when they get spooked or hollered at when they are eating my plants. And run they do, along with kicking sideways and jumping around. Such nimble creatures they are. Super cute too.

Fiona, my youngest, and I did evening chores last night and we spent time loving on those goats and one of the chickens; the others wanted nothing to do with us. But if the chickens don’t hunker down in a posture that is considered docile, you won’t be seeing me chasing them trying to get my hands on them. They run around like chickens with their heads cut off (guffaw). Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Meet Fancy and Fiona.

Fancy, our friendly chicken (I’ll be honest, all the brown chickens I named Fancy because I can’t tell them apart) was such a good sport and tolerated being held. Now Fiona on the other hand was too chicken, err, nervous to pick her up so Fancy was transferred by yours truly into her waiting arms.

My most recent purchase from Amazon is a red collar with white polka dots for Trixie and a blue and white striped collar for Dixie. Once they arrive (come on, come on, come on), I’m going to acclimate the goats to them. It’s a new feeling for them, and the goats will wear them for short periods, but my goal is to take them (or they’ll take me) on walks.

I’ll keep you posted. If you don’t hear from me again…send a search party. The goats are strong and fast.