A sheep that roamed Wadsworth for 45 days is finally safe, after a teenage roper from Litchfield and her horse ended the long-running rescue effort on Wednesday, November 11. Reagan Crumpler, 13, roped the American Blackbelly sheep in a field bordering U.S. Route 224, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, closing a saga that had drawn in volunteers, police, sheriff’s deputies, and even aerial drones.
The Beacon Journal reported that Crumpler walked to her family’s pasture that afternoon and asked her 18-year-old horse, Catalena — “Cat” — whether she wanted to go catch a sheep that day. The pair chased the sheep for hours, the paper reported, with the animal repeatedly slipping away just as Crumpler closed in, before she finally roped it. Everyone involved in the search walked about four miles that day, Whispering Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary owner Janine Smalley told the Beacon Journal.
Smalley and sanctuary volunteer Rebecca Roxberry had spearheaded the rescue since the sheep was first spotted roaming the city weeks earlier, organizing neighbors through a Facebook campaign, according to the Beacon Journal. The Medina County SPCA, the Wadsworth Police Department, and the Medina County Sheriff’s Office all contributed to the effort, and searchers at various points tried luring the sheep with another sheep and a goat, cornering her, and tracking her with a drone.
The sheep has been named Gerri Reagan, in honor of her rescuer, and is doing well on a 72-hour hold at Whispering Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary, Smalley told the Beacon Journal. Roxberry announced the capture on Facebook, writing, “After 45 days of hard work, patience, and teamwork, Whispering Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary, our volunteers, and an incredible community were finally able to catch this sheep and bring her to safety,” a post quoted in coverage of the rescue.
“The people of Wadsworth, they were so helpful,” Roxberry told News 5 Cleveland, crediting the whole community for the steady stream of sightings that kept the search alive for a month and a half.
If an owner comes forward with legal documentation of ownership during the hold, the sheep can be claimed. If no owner appears, Smalley told the Beacon Journal, Gerri Reagan will stay at the sanctuary as a permanent resident — a quiet ending, in what the sanctuary calls her “princess palace,” for the sheep that outran a whole town for 45 days.
Photo: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0