SULLIVAN TWP. — A Sullivan Township teen returned home from school Friday to find the family German shepherd outside and agitated and the rear sliding glass door shattered.

Logan Keathley crept through his own house and, according to his mother, Jennifer, the first thing he noticed was the smell. He soon found the perpetrator asleep in the bathroom: a large goat.

“Only me,” said Jennifer Keathley, “Whoever expects to get a phone call from your kid that there’s a goat in the house?”

Keathley said she called the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office to make a report, laughing the whole time and assuring them she wasn’t on drugs.

She called her insurance agent on the way home and found out that her homeowner’s insurance would cover bear or deer break-ins but not goats. Luckily the owner of the goat is confident his livestock insurance will cover the incident.

Keathley said she and the deputies called vets, animal control and the local Humane Society for advice. She said everyone laughed at them and they laughed too but they really needed help. Finally, the deputies decided to attempt corralling the goat out themselves. They tried tying a rope around its neck, enticing it with carrots, dog bones, grass.

At one point, the goat turned around and ran back into the bathroom. Eventually, the two deputies each grabbed a horn and managed to lead the goat outside and into the German Shepard’s cage.

On local Facebook pages, Keathley asked, “is anybody missing a ram? Please contact me ASAP.”

She said she didn’t want to include what the male goat had done in the post or else the owner might not claim him.

Eventually, the goat was returned to his owner, Andrew Watkins, on New London Eastern Road. “Big Boy” had made it over three miles from home after escaping almost a week prior.

“He’s never done anything like that before,” said Watkins. “I think he was drinking too much that night. I’m really sorry it happened but there wasn’t much I could do. I wasn’t there.”

The goat was not injured and the damage was confined mostly to the back door area. The goat did urinate profusely on the first floor of the home, most likely because it is currently breeding season. The dog was not injured either.

"My house definitely smells like a goat farm," said Keathley. "But there's nothing you can do but laugh."

— To report any more livestock shenanigans contact Jordan Laird at 419-281-0581 ext. 240 or jlaird@times-gazette.com.



