Two naughty emus have been “grounded” after going on the run.
George and Mildred wandered off from their home at the 3Rs Horse Rescue Centre and The Mane at Kirkclaugh near Gatehouse on Thursday morning.
Susan Murdoch and Gordon Chisholm, who run the centre, were soon receiving reports of Mildred being spotted on A75.
But it wasn’t until the evening that the wannabe Houdinis were safely back home.
Susan (inset) said: “We spent the whole afternoon on the A75 trying to find them. Facebook was brilliant, lots of people had messaged to say they were keeping an eye out and we had phonecalls of sightings.
“I didn’t know anything about it until I’d got a phone call from one of our neighbours. Usually they just run about the yard all day and never stray very far. They’re very friendly.
“One of the gates was broken and we were replacing it and I’m assuming it didn’t get shut properly – we were that busy doing other things that we didn’t notice they weren’t about.”
The birds were spotted as far as Cairnholy and Kirkdale and, as darkness fell, Gordon found “knackered” George but, unusually, the pair weren’t together, with Mildred still on the run.
Susan said: “She’s the nosiest one – if there’s stuff she shouldn’t be doing, Mildred will be doing it.
“We had a team out looking for her and one of our volunteers, Ian, found her on the back road merrily walking back home – although she was a good mile and a half from the yard.
“They’re now grounded – they absolutely love broccoli but they’re getting no broccoli for a month!
“I don’t want to curtail them too much but that’s scared the wits out of me. I was seriously expecting the worst.”
A special enclosure has been created to ensure George and Mildred don’t go on the run again.
They’ve been at the 3Rs for just over six months after being gifted to Susan by a woman in Fife who had rehomed one of their horses alongside her own emus.
Susan said: “She kept sending videos of them following the horse around and I was fair tickled.
“Earlier this year she messaged asking if I wanted a pair and I said I’d love them. One hatched on March 20 and the other on my birthday, March 27. We picked them up in Aldi’s car park in Dumfries – they were about the size of a hen when we got them. They’ve been with us ever since – they’re just two big pets.”
