Furry Fugitives Take It on the Lam

RESEDA — Talk about your threatened rural lifestyle. Karen Ingrassia awoke early Tuesday to find her horse on the lam, two lambs on the loose and several pygmy goats, um, born free.

But she probably should have seen it coming the night before. In fact, she did see a version of it the night before.

Ingrassia fell asleep watching “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” a 1993 film in which several house pets are separated from their masters but rejoin them after an arduous trek over rugged mountains.

As it happened, life imitated art, albeit in the less treacherous confines of Victory Boulevard. Less treacherous except perhaps during the crush of the morning commute.

“I got up at 6, looked in the corral and they were gone,” said Ingrassia, who keeps more than two dozen animals on her one-acre property.

It was, she realized, a mutiny in the barnyard.

Clad in pink shorts and a Minnie Mouse T-shirt, the Gladstone’s server yelled to her boyfriend and jumped in her car, all the while praying her animals would be safe.

“I was so afraid Lacy was going to get hurt,” Ingrassia said of her palomino. “The whole time I was hoping she wouldn’t get hit by a car.”

Police, meanwhile, had already received several calls about a horse and a goat wandering down Victory Boulevard near Wilbur Avenue at about 8:30 a.m.

Police quickly shut down the busy thoroughfare to prevent injuries to animals or drivers. Then, several LAPD officers teamed up with animal control officers to embark on a rush-hour roundup.

It was a challenge, authorities said, but they managed to quell the unrest by using the swarm technique on the goats and the more subtle, community-policing approach on the horse.

“We’ve had mountain lions, rattlesnakes, even a bear up in Porter Ranch,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Gregory Renner of the West Valley Division. “But it’s usually one at a time. I can’t remember the last time we had something like this.”

After tracking down two of her goats, Salt and Pepper, along the railroad tracks, Ingrassia caught up with LAPD officers who had located two others in a nearby nursery. There, they also caught up with Lacy, the horse.

Lambs Blacky and Baby, meanwhile, were safe and sound at a neighbor’s home.

Victory was reopened after being shut down for nearly an hour. Ingrassia, who said her property is zoned for farm animals, was not cited.

She said she owns more than two dozen animals which, in addition to Tuesday’s furry fugitives, include a menagerie of 10 chickens, six rabbits, two pit bulls and a potbellied pig.

“I just love them,” Ingrassia said. “They eat before I do.”

As to how the animals got out in the first place, Ingrassia speculated the escape was the work of Lacy the horse, who broke out of the corral using either her nose or a swift kick of her hoof.

“Lacy’s the only one that has the strength to do it,” Ingrassia said. “A lot of times she’ll knock over the chicken coop. She’ll look at me like, ‘Mom, look what I did. Now you have to fix it.’ ”