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Source: The World
Coos Bay, Oregon USA

Animals on the Lam

By Jolene Guzman, Staff Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008

Goat leads two dogs on adventure

NORTH BEND - These three stick together.

Charlie, the American bulldog; Lucy, the lab; and Lola the goat, are pretty much inseparable - even on the run.

Owner Ty Ru said they knocked down a fence on his property off of North Bay Road and ran off at about noon on Thursday. Lola always had been able to jump the fence, but hadn't tried to run away until the dogs were out with her, he said.

The escapees got as far as Larry and Sylvia Mangan's home off Marine Lane in North Bend.

"I was fixing a fence when I heard bleating. I thought it was a sheep," Larry Mangan said.

Then he heard whimpering and had to find out what kind of animal was running loose in the pasture.

When Mangan saw the threesome, he realized that his ears were not playing tricks on him. The runaways were prancing across a pasture in an unlikely parade, Charlie in the lead, Lucy a close second and Lola trailing a little bit behind.

"She was having a hard time keeping up," Mandan said of Lola. "But she was pretty adamant about being part of the group."

The Mandans' attempts at corralling the three fugitives were foiled by their llamas, which sent Charlie, a stout-looking black and white dog with a black patch around his left eye, running like a shot in the opposite direction, with his friends on his heels.

It took Sylvia about a half-hour and a can of dog food, fed to them in spoonfuls as she inched closer to their dogs' kennel, to convince the nervous bunch that the enclosure was the best place to be.

Then the couple started calling around find out who had lost the animals. A call into Coos County Animal Control eventually connected the Mangans to the runaways' owners.

With the trio safely in the kennel and fed, Larry started to notice their interaction. Lola, a brown, white and black dairy goat, appears to think she is a dog, he said. Lucy, solid black 4-year-old lab, remained calm and quiet. Nervous Charlie stayed wary of the llamas in a pen about 20 yards away. All three are affectionate and friendly.

As Mangan walked over to the kennel, Charlie whimpered a little. Then both dogs jumped all over Larry as he stepped in for a visit.

Something else becomes apparent while watching the three together. In spite the order of their romp across the pastures, Lola is the undisputed the leader of the pack.

In their temporary home, Lola has no reservations about showing her feelings. If one of her canine companions took up a little too much of her space, she would give them a quick nudge. If she had really had enough, in prima donna-like fashion, Lola would retreat to the dog house. A few minutes later, she would re-emerge to stand in the doorway, as if to announce her return.

Ru said that is not unlike how she is at home.

"She's the leader. Ru said. "She isn't as quick as the dogs are, so she leads them from behind."

The dog house at home has become the goat house, too, he added.

But when it comes right down to it, Lola has plenty of room for her friends.

"When it's raining, they are all in there together," Ru said.

In all, the furry gang was missing for a little more than a day. Linda Hicks, the trio's "mother," picked them up on Friday afternoon.

"It's a good ending to a very hilarious story," Mangan said.

Lucy, Charlie, and Lola