Reba McEntire and Rex Linn's Adopted Miniature Donkeys Have the Cutest Names
The Happy's Place co-stars, who announced their engagement in September 2025, love the "cowboy way of life."
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Before they joined forces on NBC's Happy's Place as bar owner Bobbie and short order cook Emmett, Reba McEntire and Rex Linn were building a little farm together. Through the years, the engaged couple have expanded their barnyard crew, including when they adopted two adorable donkeys from a Tennessee-based rescue.
At the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards, The Voice Coach gave their donkeys a little shout-out, joking that fame had gone to the equines' heads. "In case y'all didn't know, I got two of the cutest little ol' donkeys in the world. But recently, because of a TikTok video that I did with them that went viral, my donkeys have become very famous," McEntire said on stage at the award show, referring to when she got in on the hilarious "I'm a Survivor" TikTok trend. In the Queen of Country's video, McEntire looks exhausted as she feeds her donkeys and her hit 2001 song plays in the background.
"They have one hit," McEntire said at the ACMs before cheekily adding, "And they've turned into total a---es."
Read on to learn all about McEntire and Linn's love of the "cowboy way of life," which includes tending to their two miniature donkeys named Haggard and Jones.
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Reba McEntire and Rex Linn adopted two miniature donkeys named Haggard and Jones
In 2023, Fabled Farm Rescue & Sanctuary shared on social media that McEntire and Linn adopted two miniature donkeys, named Haggard and Jones. "Congratulations [Reba] and Rex on the new additions to the family," the Tennessee-based non-profit organization wrote on TikTok at the time, along with a video of McEntire and Linn meeting their new pets.
"What are you thinking?" McEntire said as she pet her new donkeys in the video, which also showed Linn feeding Haggard and Jones some tasty treats. "You little pig," Linn joked as the donkeys snatched the food out of his hands.
When Haggard and Jones arrived, they joined a big family of farm animals including horses, another donkey named Poncho, and a chicken named Mr. Pecker.
RELATED: 15 of Reba McEntire & Rex Linn's Cutest Photos Together as "The Tots"
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn love the "cowboy way of life"
Linn, a champion duck caller, and McEntire both grew up in Oklahoma, and they've since bonded over their love of ranch life. "Rex and I get along in every aspect," McEntire told FOX. "We love the cowboy way of life, cowgirl way of life."
In a 2024 interview with the Wall Street Journal, McEntire opened up about how she'd help out on her family's ranch as a child. "I didn't play cowgirl growing up. I was one," she said. "My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, where my father ran several thousand cattle a year. I began working on our ranch at age 5. If daddy needed a driver to move grain in his pickup truck, he came in and got whoever was there."
As for Linn, it's no surprise he's welcomed a family of farm animals with McEntire. Before he set his sights on acting, Linn wanted to be a veterinarian and even worked at the Oklahoma City Zoo in the '70s. "All I wanted to do was be around the animals," Linn shared in a 2010 interview with Oklahoma State University, adding that "working at the zoo is one of the highlights of my life."
Set in Knoxville, Tennessee, Happy's Place Season 2 will kinda, sorta introduce fans to some new furry friends. In the Happy's Place Season 2 trailer, Bobbie's younger half-sister, Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), walks into the bar holding a taxidermied raccoon, while bartender Gabby (Melissa Peterman) tries to track down a mouse on the loose. Hilarity and chaos are bound to ensue as the Happy's Place cast, which also includes Pablo Castelblanco and Tokala Black Elk, returns to NBC's Friday night line-up.
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Happy's Place Season 2 premieres on Friday, November 7 at 8/7c on NBC, and streams the next day on Peacock.
