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Locals 2007

Locals 2007 - a celebration of our favorite personalities.

Steamboat Springs — Tinkerbell, Clarabell and Tacobell think they are lap dogs.

"Every time you sit down in a lawn chair, they try to crawl into your lap," owner Susan Anciaux said about her three goats. "They have personalities just like dogs - they each get pouty if they don't get enough attention, and they know their names like dogs."

The goats often go on long walks with the Anciauxes and have their own hiking saddles.

"But if you start on a walk without them, you can hear them a mile away," Anciaux said. "They just ball and carry on."

Tinkerbell, Clarabell and Tacobell are often mistaken for yaks, baby llamas and alpacas when out on the trail.

"Our goats are big. They are not the little ones you see at petting zoos," Anciaux said. "They weigh about 120 pounds."

Although Anciaux and her husband, Steve, own the goats, their border collie mix thinks he's in charge of them.

"He keeps them in line when they are eating things they shouldn't be eating," Anciaux said. "And he herds them away from where they are not supposed to be."

The Anciauxes got the goats to eat the weeds in their three-acre enclosed pasture, but they turned out to be very picky about what they eat.

"If you are sitting outside in the summertime reading the newspaper, they will sneak up, grab a pile and run off with it," Anciaux said. "Then, it will flop in the wind behind them like a ghost and scare them."

The goats are smart, but they do some silly things.

"In the winter, Tacobell likes to show you how he can stick his lips onto a bucket like kids stick their tongues to metal," she said. "And one time Tinkerbell saw the tip of my paycheck hanging out of my purse. Next thing I knew, half of it was gone and the other half was covered in slime.

"Payroll never had to deal with that experience before."

- Story by Allison Plean

Photo by Tyler Arroyo