Police return 2 baby goats to owner
4-month-olds had escaped from their pen
GUILFORD — When Dannielle Sidaoui looked out the window of her home on Sugarbush Lane one day this week, she was horrified.
The pen that houses her family’s two beloved baby goats, 4-month-old George and Misty, was empty.
Sidaoui, who works from home, spends her lunch hour with the goats each day, she said.
“Apparently, that day ... I didn’t latch the gate all the way,” she said. “An hour later I had a terrible feeling in my stomach and I went to look out the back window and I saw that the gate was open and they were gone.”
According to Sidaoui, she and her son immediately went outside to search for them, calling “George! Misty!”
“I was in tears,” she said. “They could have got hit by a car or a truck. It would have been terrible.”
At her son’s suggestion, Sidaoui called the Guilford Police Department, she said.
They had happy news: George and Misty were there, safe in the department’s outdoor enclosure.
Guilford Animal Control Officer Kelly Weady, found the goats at Sugarbush Lane near Route 80, according to a police report.
Weady got one of the goats in the police dog van and put the other in the front seat, the report says.
Police Chief Warren “Butch” Hyatt said the goats were friendly.
“They both kind of trotted over to (Weady),” he said.
Once Weady got George and Misty to police headquarters, the goats were placed in the station’s outdoor pen — and the officers enjoyed their animal visitors, according to Hyatt.
The goats “helped mow the lawn a little bit in the enclosure,” he said.
It’s not uncommon for Guilford’s animal control offer to help with rescues, according to the chief.
“You never know what you’re gonna get,” Hyatt said, adding that the department has helped wrangle cows, horses, sheep and yes — even goats.
“Really the key is to keep them from hurting themselves,” he said of escaped animals.
Sidaoui is certainly relieved that her baby goats are home safe.
George and Misty, who are Nigerian Dwarf goats, are like part of the family, she said.
“They look at us as their herd,” she said. “It’s so funny because if I don’t spend enough time with them they really cry.”
Adopting George and Misty took preparation. Sidaoui said she put a lot of thought into setting up their pen — which boasts a swing and climbing structure — and making sure they’d have enough space.
Though caring for the goats is a big commitment, it’s well worth it.
“They cried all the way home in the car and then they just sort of hung out with us the rest of the night,” Sidaoui said of her trip to the police station to pick up George and Misty. “They’re very endearing, they’re very loving.”