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Nevada Lamb On The Lam: Wreck Survivor Dubbed ‘Dodger’ Finally Found

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 02:48 PST, Nov 13, 2015

A Nevada lamb went on the lam for many hours after her fellow travelers were killed in a semi-truck accident.A total of 74 sheep were killed in the accident. The female lamb was nicknamed “Dodger” after leading would-be rescuers on an overnight chase to find it.

Dodger, the Nevada lamb, was finally captured on Tuesday and has been placed with a foster family, MSN reported.

“We call her Dodger because of the traffic she survived on the highway,” Boulder City Animal Control supervisor, Ann Inabnitt, said.

Dodger and five other sheep that survived the Nevada tractor-trailer accident ran across the highway in a panic. The semi-truck wound up on its side during the wreck, and the animal cargo it was carrying was accidentally freed as rescuers attempted to remove them from the crashed big rig.

The Nevada lamb on the lam incident began on U.S. 95 just outside of Boulder City, Newsmax reports. Traffic on the highway was shut down as emergency responders and animal control agents attempted to clear the area. The tractor-trailer driver was cited for speeding and unlike the sheep he was transporting, was left unharmed by the accident.

According to the Boulder City Animal Control supervisor, two holes were cut into the tractor-trailer so animal handlers could free the 250 sheep trapped inside. The sheep were being transported from Cedar City, Utah to Yuma, Arizona for shearing. The vast majority of the sheep were adults which weighed approximately 100 pounds each. Dodger was one of only three lambs on board the tractor-trailer. The female lamb was born last spring.

A total of 74 sheep died and five others were injured during the U.S. 95 semi-truck accident. The sheep and lambs inside the truck reportedly landed either on top of each other or upside down. The likely cause of death of the livestock was suffocation. The sheep which survived the crash reportedly had scrapes on their flesh, suffered broken legs, or had cuts on their hooves.

“Unfortunately when these things happen, they smother each other,” Inabnitt added.

Five of the six surviving sheep which ran away from the highway accident were caught by Monday evening and returned to their owners. The Boulder City Animal Control supervisor told local reporters that the company searching for the still missing lamb said that it would be too expensive to come back again the following day to search for her. The ownership of Dodger was then relinquished to the custody of the animal control agency.

“They said, ‘If you find it, you can have it,'” Inabnitt told the media. “They were finally able to wear her down.”

Before being caught, Dodger spent the night in the desert. She was then spotted along the highway on Tuesday morning. It took about four hours and 50 volunteers, many of them cowboys form the local horseman’s association, to finally lasso and capture the stealthy and agile lamb.

When she was finally caught, animal control agents determined that Dodger was not at all injured; she was just extremely hungry, thirsty and tired. A foster family agreed to give a new home to the Nevada lamb and to eventually adopt her and give her a forever home. Dodger is now happily cohabiting with a “very lonely” female goat, the Boulder City supervisor noted.

“They have a big goat that has been by herself and when we put the lamb in there, they started rubbing against each other,” Inabnitt said. “It worked out. I wasn’t going to allow her to be food. ”

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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