Shelter officials locate owner of goat found wandering in Newark

Found goat posted by Tri-City Shelter in Fremont to its Facebook page on June 3, 2019. 

He was no doubt one of the more unusual guests of the Tri-City Animal Shelter in Fremont. And now his owner has come forward, according to shelter officials Tuesday.

The wayward goat was found Monday wandering the streets of Newark in the area of Olive St. and Dairy Ave.

The shelter, which receives mostly cats and dogs, posted a photo of the male goat on social media, which likely played a major role in getting the word out about the lost animal.  

The photo shows the white goat with black and brown spottings and dark colored ears staring straight at the camera, as it stands over a pile of hay. 

Along with the picture, was a caption which "goated" Facebook users to get punny in their comments.

"Who's missing their goat?" the shelter asked. "Looking forward to the goat puns in the comments. We will start, if a goat grows a beard, is it a goatee?"

There were some clever comments that followed.

 "I sure hope he goats home safely," wrote Henry Cheung.

Jesse Schaa commented, "Does it look like I goat time for this? Naaaaaa, Those are the corniest puns I herd!"

Even the Fremont Police Dept. chimed in as it shared the post on its Facebook page. "Missing a goat???" the department asked. "The Tri City Animal Shelter has a goat they'd like to return baaack to its owner."

It appears all of the attention the goat received on social media helped.

The shelter told KTVU that about 1 p.m. on Tuesday it received a call from a man who said he was the owner.

The owner told the shelter that a friend was "goat-sitting" when the animal got away.

"He didn't realize a goat could jump over a six foot fence," a shelter official told KTVU. 

There are some questions into whether the owner had the proper permits to be housing the animal, and officials said that was something they would be looking into.