Wayward Goats Leave Job To Take In View At Los Altos Estate

LOS ALTOS HILLS, CA -- About 60 wayward goats found prime real estate in the hills above Los Altos, sending Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies on a roundup of a different sort last Thursday night.

"We did a little traffic control," sheriff's spokesman Michael Low told Patch Saturday.

The call from Palo Alto Animal Control came in to the sheriff's department at 9:47 a.m., declaring the hired goats got through the electric fence and left one piece of property they were supposed to chew down. They climbed up to an estate worth an estimated millions on La Rena Lane near Dianne Drive to take in a better view. (Real estate agents would be proud.)

Deputies were knocking on doors looking for the owner of the goats. It didn't take long for the man whose goats have been in the news before to show up.

"That was Zorro," said Dan Allen of Green Goats Landscaping in Morgan Hill.

Allen knew right away which goat instigated the wandering.

"Even though it's a matriachy, he's an escape artist, and the others follow him. It didn't take too much," Allen said.

There was a weak spot in the fence down the hill at the O'Keefe Lane jobsite where the goats were supposed to mow down the grass.

"I always ask (the homeowner of the fence): 'Can a cat get through it?" he said. If the answer is yes, he knows the risk is there that his enterprising goats can get out.

Nonetheless, Allen said he was scratching his head because his goats were hanging out on the cement at a spot "with a view." It appeared to be a party that Allen soon ended.

The escape to the other property sent Allen on his own adventure, cleaning up the estate of the unsuspecting homeowner up the hill.

The incident may have also made Allen a little nervous since about the same number of goats were stolen from a property about a mile away from his 16-acre property in Coyote Valley last December. The experience may him "feel violated" - especially since many of them were the valuable females.

See also

• Baaaah Humbug: Stolen Goats Still Missing From Morgan Hill