A downtown Sherman art studio is running pottery-painting sessions with baby goats in the room, and the studio says those sessions have sold out on more than one date this summer.
Pickles & Pottery, 212 West Houston St., describes the Painting with Goats event on its class page as a session where guests pick out a piece of pottery and paint it while baby goats are on hand for petting, cuddling and photos. A listing on the studio's own event calendar showed a Painting with Goats session scheduled for July 18 at the West Houston address.
The sellout claims come from the studio itself. Pickles & Pottery posted on June 5, 2026 that a Painting with Goats event had gone well and that the following Saturday's session was already sold out. In mid-July 2026 the studio posted again, saying that Saturday's session had sold out while tickets remained available for other July dates. Those two posts, roughly six weeks apart, are the record behind the pattern.
On its website, Pickles & Pottery calls itself a paint-your-own pottery and art studio, listing pottery, clay, glass, mosaics, acrylic painting and event offerings. Downtown Sherman Now, which keeps a directory for the district, counts the business among downtown Sherman's activity and class venues.
The goats themselves fall under city keeping rules that read differently from one Texoma city to the next, Gainesville included.
Sherman's animal-control code classifies goats as livestock and applies the city's keeping requirements to them. Standard goats and other livestock are subject to a 50-foot setback from an adjoining habitable building and to a requirement of one acre per animal, and the code sets separate provisions for pygmy goats. Those provisions were adopted through Ordinance 6416 on Sept. 20, 2021, nearly five years before this summer's studio events.
Source: Sherman animal-control code, adopted through Ordinance 6416 on Sept. 20, 2021
Denison's official FAQ describes pygmy goats differently, saying they may be kept inside the city limits only as pets.
Gainesville's 2015 animal-control ordinance requires livestock inside the city limits to comply with zoning. It allows one animal on a five-acre lot and requires an additional unobstructed acre for each animal past the first. Livestock may be on city streets or in city parks only in connection with an event permitted for that use.
Two Texoma cities, two land rules for keeping livestock
One acre per animal
Goats count as livestock. Standard goats and other livestock require one acre per animal and a 50-foot setback from an adjoining habitable building, with separate provisions for pygmy goats.
Five-acre lot to start
Livestock must comply with zoning. One animal is allowed on a five-acre lot, with one additional unobstructed acre for each animal past the first, and livestock may be on city streets or in parks only for a permitted event.
Source: Sherman animal-control code (Ordinance 6416, Sept. 20, 2021); Gainesville animal-control ordinance, 2015
None of the public records reviewed for this report address whether or how any city's livestock provisions apply to the studio's sessions, and neither the studio's website nor its posts mention permitting. No attendance counts, ticket figures or goat counts were available in the records reviewed.
Join the conversation
Comments