Willy, the rodeo goat who escaped from the Willacy County Livestock Show in South Texas, US, has returned.
The elusive goat had spent weeks evading arrest in Willacy County, about 300 miles (483 km) southwest of Houston, by hiding in corn and sugar-cane fields. Residents used horses, all-terrain vehicles, and drones to hunt for her.
Ninety prizes and presents worth a combined $5,000 (£3,948) from local businesses — including brisket, hay bales, and beef jerky —were donated to be handed to whoever discovered her in order to aid in the search.
It didn't take long for Ricardo Rojas III to locate Willy. On Monday, they captured the slick goat in their garden, nearly a mile (1.6 km) from where it had escaped.
The 16-year-old junior in high school and a family friend, Sammy Ambriz, were repairing livestock stalls on the family's 10-acre (four-hectare) property in Raymondville, South Texas, when a Willy sighting occurred.
Rojas’s father instructed him to collect some ropes because neighbours might have seen the goat. Rojas attempted to entice Willy out of the densely forested area behind his family’s land by using one of his family’s goats and its cries.
They soon noticed Willy emerging from the woods and, when she fled back into the trees, they pursued her, according to Rojas. Rojas and Ambriz both unsuccessfully attempted to lasso Willy when they cornered her.
Rojas said in a telephone interview to AP on Wednesday. “And then she started to run again. But luckily, we had a fence that was there, and she tried to hop the fence, but then her head got stuck in the fence,” Rojas said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Me and Sammy jumped on top of her. At that point, she wasn’t going nowhere.”
Rojas and Ambriz plan to share the reward prizes.
The animal didn’t have a name when she first escaped. A Facebook poll on the website during the hunt gave her the name Willy. The cattle show had been updating its page with news during the search. Savage added that the gender of Willy had not been determined by authorities.
People from all around the United States had written to ask for information and to give their best wishes for Willy’s safe return.
Many of the 20,000 inhabitants of Willacy County, many of whom cultivate crops and keep cattle, came together during the search.
But what is Willy’s fate and why was she captured when she was happy on the lam?
President of the Willacy County Livestock Show and Fair Alison Savage said they were worried that predators, including coyotes, might get her.
“We had her checked over just to make sure that she is getting healthy,” Savage said. “We plan to let ol’ Miss Willy lead a very sweet life going forward.”
