Animals on the Lam

• Auburn, Massachusetts, police received a number of calls over the weekend of Sept. 15-17 about a wayward goat, but it wasn't until the wee hours of Monday, Sept. 18, that No. 448 was finally corralled at the La Quinta Inn in Auburn, reported CBS Boston. The "mischievous runaway farm animal" was seen on surveillance video entering the lobby of the hotel and wandering the halls, "presumably to rest a bit," said police. Peter Blash, No. 448's owner, said the goat jumped a 5-foot-high fence and "took off like a criminal." However, Blash said, "I had one that made it all the way to Sturbridge." [CBS Boston, 9/20/2017]

• Just north of Benton, Kansas, a rancher posted signs promising a reward to anyone who could help him find his missing longhorn cow, Mercedes. The Wichita Eagle reported the 3-year-old black-and-white bovine went missing on Sept. 11 during Cross Trails, a weekly cowboy church service at Greg Johnson's Prairie Rose Ranch. Friends, neighbors and family have searched high and low for Mercedes, recognizable by her 5-foot-wide horns, but the only sighting of her has been near the El Dorado, Kansas, Walmart, about 10 miles away. Johnson says this isn't the first time she's run off: "She is more of a loner." [The Wichita Eagle, 9/19/2017]