Missing goat found after wild goose chase
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WEAR) — Overwhelmed with excitement. That's the emotion JoAnna Cope expressed when Channel 3 News reached out to her Wednesday asking about her missing goat.
That's because she'd been reunited with her baby boy just moments before. Dozens of social media shares helped get the word out about the ordeal.
Cotton went missing Sunday, just two days before he turned two months old . She thought someone stole him.
"We put it all over Craigslist, Facebook and everything. Someone yesterday finally connected me withPawBoost, a lost and found pet site," JoAnna said.
Tuesday night, JoAnna took that lead and "drove all over Pensacola" - directly into a dead end. After several unsuccessful phone calls, she finally got a breakthrough the next day.
Wednesday morning, she got a Facebook message from a man who found Cotton through PawBoost. He told her the animal was safe and sound just six miles away at Safe Harbor Animal Hospital on Creighton Road.
"Everyone was fighting over who would get my goat if no one came and got it," JoAnna gleefully explained.
It turned out he was picked up near her home off Davis Highway after making his great escape.
"He pushed down the fence, which he's never done before, but we'll get that secured," JoAnna told Channel 3 News.
Good Samaritan Jo Ann Wittschen noticed Cotton wandering around, loaded him into her minivan and took him to work - at the animal hospital.
"Now I have a place to board him, which I didn't know what to do with him in case I went out of town," said JoAnna.
She said she believes everything happens for a reason and feels the runaround was worth the reward of Cotton's return home.