ERIE — He was certainly a regular at the Conoco gas station, but he never bought a darn thing.
He mostly hung around watching people going in and out of the store, staring them down with a somewhat vacant expression.
Except when he was feeling feisty.
“A customer of mine was trying to leave once, and the goat chased him and he came running back in and slammed the door behind him,” said Pam King, manager of the Conoco at the corner of East County Line and Jay roads in Erie.
The frequent visits from Dennis, the red and white Boer goat who couldn’t refrain from breaking out of his owner’s pasture behind the gas station, have come to an end. An animal control officer with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office impounded the animal March 6.
“It got to the point that it was ridiculous,” King said of Dennis’ appearances in the store’s parking lot and filling area.
King said she and other employees regularly escorted the goat by leash back to his owner’s property next door, but the animal always found a way over the fence and back onto the gas station property. He visited dozens of times over the last three months, she said.
“Sometimes he’d be here more than twice a day.”
King called Erie police many times about the goat, but because the animal’s home is just outside city limits in unincorporated Boulder County, all officers could do was ask the owner to keep a closer eye on Dennis — as in “Dennis the Menace.”
Finally, Erie police asked for help from the county.
“Their officers are basically not equipped to deal with a goat situation,” said Terry Snyder, an animal control officer with the Sheriff’s Office, who described Dennis as “sweet.”
Snyder said impounding goats is a rare event for her department — she’s only rounded up three or four in the last 23 years on the job.
Dennis now resides at Knick O’ Time Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation, a facility for stranded animals located north of Longmont.
Stephanie Wendorf, who runs Knick O’ Time, describes Dennis as a self-assured and strong-willed goat. He climbs up on bales of hay and “raises a ruckus” with the other goats on the property.
“He’s a very confident animal,” she said. “He is a trouble-maker, but real friendly. He’s so proud of himself — he has a very secure ego.”
The goat’s owner, Carrie Morgan, hasn’t claimed Dennis since he was impounded, and now the animal is available for adoption. The Camera was unable to reach Morgan on Thursday.
Wendorf said it would be no problem finding a new home for Dennis.
With the economy in a funk, many horse owners in the area are looking for inexpensive animal companions for their horses. Goats fit the bill, Wendorf said.
As for why Dennis spent so much of his free time in a busy gas station parking lot, devoid of any greenery, Wendorf said it could simply be a matter of the droopy-eared creature needing to see what was on the other side of the fence.
“Goats are very inquisitive, and if they can get out, they will,” she said.
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