Te Puke volunteer firefighters with Trixie on the stokes basket.
Te Puke volunteer firefighters with Trixie on the stokes basket.
As rescues go, it could well be the greatest of all time.
Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade crews aren't strangers to getting animals out of tricky situations.
But even they were a little perplexed as they headed out to a recent animal rescue when they heard, en route, that theywere on their way to rescue a goat stuck in a tree.
''You're kidding?'' said one of the firefighters. At least we'd like to think they did.
But it was true - Trixie the goat had become wedged in the fork of a punga tree.
She suffered some pretty nasty injuries, but now she is well on the road to recovery, her story can be told.
Trixie is one of 10 goats owned by Robyn Joll.
''We think that, as they all do, she jumped up on her hind legs to get a punga and has then fallen downhill and got wedged in it and the other goats have probably climbed on her and pushed her further down,'' says Robyn.
''Three strong people couldn't un-wedge her at all and we couldn't cut it either because she was so firmly wedged it could have impaled her.''
The fire brigade's help was sought.
''We thought 'how on earth can a goat climb a tree?','' says deputy chief fire officer Dale Lindsay.
''We sent one truck out for some manpower and they called the second truck because we were going to need some cutting gear, to try and get the chainsaw and cut the bow of the tree away, but they managed to do it with a handsaw in the finish.''
While there were no broken bones, internal injuries meant Trixie was immobile so she was put on a stokes basket and carried out of the gully.
Trixie munching away in her improvised harness.
Robyn says for some time Trixie couldn't walk or stand so a support was rigged up using crates, clothesline poles and shopping bags to get her upright several times a day and food and water was taken to her.
''A couple of times we thought about getting her put down, but we persevered and hoisted her several times a day and lifted her up on the harness.''
''She's a bit like a wonky donkey [now], but she's making good progress, so I think she'll be good.''
Last week the room service stopped as she was ''getting a bit lazy''.
Robyn says there is no real way of knowing how long Trixie was stuck, but it was probably overnight.
''She's beautifully natured and even when she was really annoyed with us for picking her up and strapping her with the shopping bags and things, she'd never do anything.''
