Isuppose if I were trying to be politically correct about the whole thing I would say they’re, well, stature impaired. After all, the pigmy goats — is pigmy politically incorrect? — are not the tallest goats you’ll find, but these guys sure do make up for a lack of stature with determination and perhaps a little bit of smarts.

Now I have to be honest about these goats. They were my idea. That’s important because I can’t really complain about their mischievous ways and just blame it on my wife’s propensity for collecting livestock.

Nope, when our friend Dave called to say he had two pigmy goats, well I couldn’t resist checking it out for myself.

Dave lives out in the country and has goats. In fact, our first goats, a couple of Nubians, came from Dave.

So we got out there and there they were, Salt and Pepper. Salt is a male and pepper is a female. Salt has been neutered so there’s no risk of having kids, and that fact made the whole thought of taking these guys home more desirable.

Now, we have practically an entire acre fenced in and a barn to boot. There’s plenty of space for these guys to roam and graze, at least during the greener months.

When we first brought them home the large Nubian goat and her friend Brenda the sheep weren’t the most welcoming couple. They all butted heads because, I reckoned, there would be more competition for all of that grazing area.

Of course anyone could see that there’s plenty of space to graze, but for Fatty and Miss Piggy — that’s the Nubian and the sheep — well there’s never enough for those two. All in all, however, the four of them ended up getting along, except now that winter has reached its apex, there’s not enough green on their side of the fence.

The grass is greener on the other side comes to mind here and I suppose that if the goats could speak, they’d tell you that it’s not just a cliché. The livestock has simply depleted all of its green options behind the fence until spring.

On the other side of the fence, however, there are dangling limbs with greens and a few patches of grass growing strong where the sun hits the south side. The pigmy, er, stature impaired, goats have been pining for that grub.

Yes, pining. They make sounds and those sounds are the sounds of pining over greens. So they get out. They get out in spades and if I was to characterize my winter so far, it would be the winter I chased a couple of goats the size of Labrador retrievers around my yard.

It would also be the winter I chased weak fences, places where they can apparently leap with great effect and any other spot that might be an escape hatch.

None of it works. These guys may be stature impaired, but they know how to get what they want. They are determined little goats that stand tall when it comes to what they want.