California: With help from goat, wily Clydesdale goes on lam for 5 days

CALIFORNIA -- A 1,900-pound fugitive dressed in a brown coat and white fetlocks was finally captured Sunday afternoon after a five-day spree in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The desperado, a Clydesdale horse named Budweiser, or “Buddy” for short, broke out of his pen in the area of Laurel Road near Highway 17. He was busted out by his best friend, Lancelot, a Nigerian dwarf billy goat, according to owner Tamara Schmitz.

“Last Wednesday I closed the gate to the horse pen with Lancelot still inside. He’s figured out that if I don’t lock the gate he can ram it open if he butts it a few times. So that’s what happened,” said Schmitz.

A second Clydesdale named Harry also escaped, but Harry got thirsty, wandered into a nearby meadow and was captured the next day.

Buddy had different plans.

“Buddy’s very elusive. He’s not like other horses. He’s not attracted by meadows and other horses. He can stay hidden,” Schmitz said.

And stay hidden he did. For the next five days, Buddy escaped detection as he ranged across a 3-mile area from Schulties Road to Redwood Lodge Road to Laurel Road.

“One of the neighbors heard him snorting across the ravine one night. The next night someone saw him at Redwood Lodge. But by the time we would arrive, we would only find his tracks,” said Schmitz.

Schmitz said she received a great deal of help from the entire community. Volunteers from as far away as Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz and Hollister joined the posse. They hiked the ravines, rode horseback and drove nearby roads calling his name.

Schmitz even brought Harry and Lancelot out to see if the smell of his friends could coax him into the open. No dice. Buddy wasn’t falling for it.

Every day from 7 a.m until to dark, Schmitz and her posse combed the rugged area, praying that Buddy would stay away from Highway 17. Sunday, they caught a break.

“Two members of the posse caught sight of him while riding by on horseback. He was hiding in some Manzanita about a mile from the house,” Schmitz said.

Just like that, Buddy’s run was over.

“When we got him back in the pen, he was particularly frisky and playful and happy,” Schmitz said. “I think he was glad to be back.”

(Santa Cruz Sentinel - Aug 28, 2016)

St. Pete couple fight to keep their mini goat and sheep

FLORIDA -- Winston Fiore and his girlfriend, Rachel Auer, haven't mowed their lawn in months.
That's a job for Shelby and Gabby.

Shelby, a miniature Shetland sheep, and Gabby, a Nigerian dwarf goat, love munching on grass.

Their owners love not having to use a machine to manicure their lot. The neighbors — especially the neighborhood kids — are equally enamored of the miniature breeds.

The city codes department? Not so much.

After seeing Shelby and Gabby in the back yard this month, city inspector Robert Hicks issued Fiore a violation.

St. Petersburg has an ordinance against livestock (goats, horses and cattle included) within 100 feet of a residence. Shelby and Gabby must go, the letter said.

Fiore, 28, and Auer, 27, are fighting back.

The couple, who moved here from Chicago this past summer, say Shelby and Gabby are their pets.

They're smaller than some medium-sized dogs (just fluffier). They don't make much noise (they're more of the cute, silent type). And they've already saved Fiore and Auer money on landscaping. They don't even smell that bad.

"Across the United States — Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco — cities allows this," Fiore said in a plea before the City Council on Monday. "I think it would be great if we could revisit this ordinance, or at least make an exception."

Indeed, city officials have before. City Attorney Mark Winn reminded officials at the meeting Monday that the city bent the rules for potbellied pigs, which have been allowed in St. Petersburg since 1992.

"I'm sure we can figure out a way for him to keep (Shelby and Gabby) if that's what the council wants to do," Winn said.

City leaders would have to amend the current code.

Fiore, a former Marine who recently completed an urban agriculture apprenticeship up North, hopes that will happen.

Shelby and Gabby, who grew up on a north Georgia petting farm, are a hit here in Fiore's Lake Euclid neighborhood, just north of 22nd Avenue N and west of 16th Street. Residents slip them treats through the fence. The pair, both females, already found plenty of work to do in the back yard, which once had knee-high weeds and grass. It's now mostly flat, with some shin-high clumps remaining.

Auer, who is doing a speech pathology fellowship at Bay Pines VA Medical Center, and Fiore hope to eventually grow their brood. Once Shelby and Gabby get the yard in better shape, they want to add chickens, rabbits, maybe a pig. All are allowed in the city.

At the suggestion of council Chairman Karl Nurse, Fiore plans to go to a council committee meeting next month that will include a discussion about urban farming. He has already been in touch with council member Leslie Curran.

The city originally told the couple they had until Thursday to get rid of Shelby and Gabby. Officials recently gave them 30 more days.

"They've been anything but a nuisance," Fiore said Tuesday, after feeding Shelby and Gabby a banana and carrot snack. They're "the most low-maintenance pets ever."

(Tampa Bay Times - Nov 26, 2013)