Toms River Resident Has Got Your Goat

Update: Resident Joanne Johnson Yuro says the goat's owner was located and the pygmy will be returned to Atlantic Farms.

Original story:

Have you lost a goat?

If so, Toms River resident Joanne Johnson Yuro has it. Please contact her.

The female goat turned up in the backyard of her Oak Ridge Parkway home Saturday morning. At 5:30 a.m., she looked out her sliding back door and saw a pygmy goat standing there.

Yuro has been taking care of the goat since that morning, as she desperately tries to find the owner.

She's been posting on facebook, and calling local farms and rescues. She's called the police and today will try animal control and the Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey. She contacted Toms River Patch and hopes a reader will email her at moonstruck60@comcast.net or message her on facebook.

The matter of how a pygmy goat, approximately six years old, gets into a backyard is one she and friends have been pondering for the last 24 hours.

"It was in my fenced in yard," Yuro said. "And I was told that someone must have opened the gate and put her there. She couldn't have jumped the fence without climbing on something!"

None of her neighbors own the goat. She's put the message out at the 7-11 on Oak Ridge and Route 37 in hopes someone in the neighborhood knows where the goat came from.

The pygmy, which is mostly gray and white with some tan, also has some black on its face around its eyes and ears. It showed up with no collar around its goat neck, and isn't tagged or have any other clues as to who might own it.

The humor of the situation is not lost on Yuro. But in all honesty she really hopes the owner turns up before she has to go to work on Monday. She doesn't want to leave the goat unattended for hours at her home while she's at work.

"My main concern is that I need to go to work Monday and I don't really want to leave it home alone to eat my pool cover or anything else!" she said.

As the clock ticks toward Monday morning, the goat has been spending time in the backyard and in the garage.

"My children, 16 and 20, think this is hysterical," Yuro said. There's also the matter of her pet dog. She's kept the goat and her dog separated, keeping one in the garage when the other is outside.

"How am I dealing with it? Well, when the dog needs to go out in the backyard, the goat goes in the garage or the front yard. When the dog goes back in the house, the goat gets the yard," Yuro said.

Yuro said that the goat spent the overnight in the garage, enjoying a timothy bed of hay, and a supply of food and water.

"It's quite dry and comfy," Yuro said. "She did not eat anything in the garage; bike is still in one piece."

Some friends have asked if they can bring kids over to see the goat, and she'll oblige, but she really hopes the owner comes forward soon.

"I'm sure the owner misses her," Yuro said. The goat, which Yuro named Josephine, is so far a happy houseguest to the home in the Oak Ridge section of Toms River.

"She is quite happy...as far as goats show happiness," Yuro said.

Anyone with information can contact Yuro on facebook email her at moonstruck60@comcast.net.