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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The puns are as obvious as they are tempting - goats on the lam; it be-hooves us to tell you; we'll have to milk this story - but it was no laughing matter for Yellowknifer Dwayne Wohlgemuth when he woke up Wednesday morning to realize his two goats were missing from the yard of his 49 Avenue home.

"I got up at 6 o'clock, went down to feed them but didn't see them and, sure enough, found not one but both gates open," Wohlgemuth told Yellowknifer on Thursday. "I though, 'oh man, what's happened?'"

What happened, as far as Wohlgemuth - an environmental consultant and avid gardener - can tell is that someone, for reasons unknown, had opened the gates and left them open during the night, allowing the goats - mother Annie and two-month-old Cleo - to wander off.

"I figured they might be in a neighbour's yard eating the flowers or maybe causing a traffic jam," he said. "So, I started biking around and then in the direction of Niven.

Wohlgemuth, who is raising the animals for their milk and to breed them, said he also occasionally walks them on leashes along the Niven Lake trail, not far from his home.

But when he didn't spot the fugitives right away, he quickly put out notices online and on the local radio station.

"I was a little panicked when I was biking around and thinking of all the things that could happen to them," he said. "But then I remembered they're skittish of cars, of course, and of people, and I figured they'd probably find a quiet spot with a clump of trees and just eat to their hearts' content."

Wohlgemuth's strategy worked, and by noon he received notice that the goats had not only been spotted but had been wrangled by two construction workers on Deweerdt Drive and then deposited into the yard of a friendly neighbour there - on the opposite side of Niven Lake, further than they'd ever been before.

Within a quarter-hour, Wohlgemuth arrived to thank Annie and Cleo's rescuers and lead his errant charges home - though, in this case, they led him.

"It was a relief - and nice to see them again and know that they were happy and healthy," he said.

"And it was funny because they would have had to cross some rock to get around the lake, but on the way back they led me - they totally knew the way home."

That knowledge also was a relief to Wohlgemuth, though he's taking precautions to prevent a repeat performance - including putting locks on the gates in his yard. "Dog tags" for his goats are already on order.

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