Staff Reports
THATCHER – While most in the Gila Valley were carving turkey and arguing over politics yesterday, one Thatcher family on 8th Avenue got the ultimate uninvited dinner guest: a massive Desert Bighorn ram who apparently mistook their backyard for the buffet line.
The drama began when the neighbors’ two bird dogs decided to audition for a role in a horror movie. Their howling reached decibels usually reserved for smoke alarms, which – instead of scaring off wildlife – apparently sounded like a dinner bell to a large, very curious bighorn sheep.
The dogs, suddenly realizing they had ordered à la carte from the wrong menu, went suspiciously quiet.
Desert Bighorn sheep are typically found high in the rugged mountains of Greenlee County near Morenci, where Freeport-McMoRan and the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) have spent years and millions of dollars transplanting, monitoring, and protecting one of the state’s most iconic – and stubborn – species. Seeing one casually window-shopping in a Thatcher subdivision is about as common as spotting a penguin at a Phoenix pool party.
Neighbors snapped photos while keeping a respectful distance. The sheep moseyed off after a while and has since been spotted in another Thatcher backyard.
AZGFD reminds residents that if a bighorn does drop by unannounced, admire from afar, keep pets inside, and definitely do not try to offer it cranberry sauce – they’re on a strict mineral-lick-and-desert-forage diet.
