By RICHARD PALOMA

rpaloma@oakdaleleader.com

Around the country emergency crews get called out to rescue cats stuck in trees. In Oakdale, police and animal control officers were called out to free a sheep stuck in a tree.

According to the Oakdale Police Department, a call was received about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6 regarding “a goat” stranded in a tree along the Stanislaus River behind River Bluff Drive.

By the time emergency crews and firefighters from the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Department had arrived, the animal was out of the tree and had been pulled to shore.

Officials did not know how it landed in the tree, but high water levels and recent rain could have caused the critter to seek higher ground.

After the animal was helped up the river bank, it was taken to a local veterinarian who examined the animal.

“It originally looked like a goat when it was all wet which is why initial reports stated the animal was a goat,” said Oakdale Police Dispatcher Beverly Eagle-Rodriguez, “but after it got all dried off we discovered it was a sheep.”

The Oakdale Animal Shelter later posted on Facebook that the rescued sheep was reunited with a group of lambs that had become separated from their mother.