Wayward sheep causes ruckus in Bay of Plenty town

Reunited. Fleur Salt with Mallory the sheep that went walkabout in Te Puke. Photo/Stuart Whitaker

For a sheep that is never heard, Mallory has caused quite a disturbance in Te Puke.

Mallory escaped from owner Fleur Salt's Station Rd property and hoofed it towards the town centre last week.

She was aided by Daisy - the naughtiest of the four cows she shares a small paddock with - who had broken off a piece of fence with her horns.

When she realised Mallory was missing, Fleur asked at the neighbouring yard, where she was told Mallory had jumped in and out of a van before chasing it when it was driven away.

She followed and was heading towards the Jocelyn St-Jellicoe St roundabout when she heard Mallory had been seen near Harvestpoint Church.

"I walked around the area and asked a few people," she says.

"Everybody thought I was joking, but I suppose you don't often see a sheep chasing a van."

But, it seems Mallory had doubled back, eluded capture and was trotting through the town centre, heading east.

Deborah Evans was just coming out of the post office and saw the flash of white on the opposite side of the road.

"I thought, 'what on Earth ..?' I couldn't tell if it was a sheep or a goat."

Jumping in her car, she gave chase and stopped near the last takeaway on the south side of Jellicoe St where Mallory had found a grassed garden area.

"She was shaken and confused," says Deborah who managed to wrestle the sheep on to its back and hold her down. "Then I thought 'now what?'."

A small crowd had gathered and fortunately, one of the bystanders had a ute. Mallory was put into the back and taken to Deborah's house where she has a fenced section as she has a goat.

"She seemed happy with my goat," says Deborah, who said she thought Mallory had fallen off the back of a ute or trailer.

Through the power of social media, Mallory and Fleur were reunited about 6-and-a-half hours after the adventure began.

Mallory's penchant for motor travel began at her and Fleur's previous home, an orchard on Rangiuru Rd.

The sheep would chase the car and Fleur would often open the door and let her get in.

"She used to travel with me in the car, until she started doing too many poos so I had to stop her. She's a weird sheep. She used to run hard out beside the car."

Fleur said she would have been devastated had something happened to 9-month-old Mallory.

"I've had her since she was about 10 minutes old - she's my baby. "I was freaking out when I thought I'd lost her."