An Oregon State Police officer got an unusual call on Sunday when dispatch relayed a report of a loose llama on Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.
Trooper Levi Macy was monitoring traffic near Baker City around 7:20 a.m. when the call of a wayward camelid wandering the highway came across his radio.
“I got there and sure enough a displeased mama llama was laying on the onramp,” Macy said, via a Facebook post from the state police’s account.
Macy said the llama’s owner was transporting three of the animals from Washington to Utah in the back of a short-bed pickup truck with a homemade livestock rack.
The rack proved inadequate in containing the llamas as the driver attempted to negotiate an uphill turn and one of the animals ended up on the highway, according to Macy.
“Fortunately enough for the llama and myself, the speeds were slow, and traffic was minimal,” Macy wrote.
The driver noticed the missing llama about a mile later, but when he stopped to investigate, the other two animals jumped from the truck and began running down the highway, according to Macy.
“The owner ran back and gave me the rope to hook to mama llama’s harness,” Macy wrote. “Mama llama refused to get up as you could see by her displeased facial expression… so I told him that I would llama sit, while he wrangled up the others.”
Eventually, all three llamas were safely captured and the “mama llama was reloaded into the truck and provided some medication to ease her mama llama trauma,” Macy wrote.
The driver of the truck was issued a warning for “operating with a leaking or shifting load,” Macy said.
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