Lefty remains on the loose.
The nearly three-foot and 300-pound miniature Scottish Highland bull escaped from Kit Sullivan’s Franklin Farm on Thursday and remains free, despite being spotted multiple times a day since then.
Sullivan said he’s been mainly seen in a Norwich neighborhood about four miles from his Franklin farm.
“He’s been seen every day,” Sullivan said Sunday morning.
“He pops up in random backyards. He’s a little skittish right now. Unfortunately, I haven’t had him that long, so he doesn’t know me that well. I’ve been leaving grain out. I’ve must have left out 200 pounds of grain for him in different neighborhoods and in different backyards in the same area where he is popping up.”
Sullivan said Lefty does not like dogs and runs if a dog barks at him.
“He’s tiny and very hard to find in the woods,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Lefty is like a compact, agile, muscular St. Bernard dog. He and three others were heading back to the search on Sunday morning to the Norwich neighborhood – which has become the Lefty hotspot.
“I’m going to try to coax him, and I will be leaving out a trailer and fill it with a bunch of grain and hopefully he will stick around to get ahold of him,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he’s gotten close enough to Lefty two times in that neighborhood. He hooked one of Lefty’s horns with a rope, but he was able to shake it off and run back into the woods. The second time, once Sullivan reached for his bag to get rope, Lefty bolted away.
“I had him in someone’s backyard and he just looked at me and looked at the fence and looked at the (4-foot) fence and figured I could jump that no problem,” Sullivan said.
“He jumped over and went into the woods. It’s such thick woods with briars and it’s hard to walk through the woods at his pace because he can just plow through briars. They have very thick skin and two coats of hair. They can just plow right through a briar bush. It’s become very frustrating getting a rope around him. I’m hoping we can get some eyes on him today.”
Sullivan said he bought Lefty just 10 days ago. He has a smaller enclosure just for goats with five-foot predator fencing.
“He was there for a day and then I wanted to let him meet all of the other ladies on the farm and I have a large bull who is very docile. When I let (Lefty) out. He walked over to the bull smelled him and casually started walking away and the next thing I knew he dipped through barbed wire fence. I saw it happen. I tried to get ahead of him with my dogs and corral him back my farm but he’s quick.”
Sullivan said there is an underground gas line next to his property. He said the mowed trail runs for miles and miles through Franklyn and Norwich. Sullivan said Lefty went on that trail and kept going.
“I searched for three days in the 500 acres of hay fields and forest around my place and the next thing you know someone said he just popped up in someone’s backyard in a neighborhood which was quite surprising because there is a highway there. I’m not sure if he got around the highway or went over it or under it. But he seems to like this one neighborhood.”
Sullivan said Lefty enjoys eating poison ivy, bittersweet and grass and this Norwich neighborhood plenty of that for his Miniature Scottish Highland bull. Sullivan added that there is also plenty of water for him to drink.
“Every day I’ve been putting in eight hours a day walking through the woods, and I have a couple people helping me out driving around the neighborhood as I walk through the woods,” Sullivan said. “He’s been seen every day. People try to take a picture of him, and he trots away and is hidden. He’s smart. He knows to sit down and wait everyone out. It’s just very difficult to find him.”
Sullivan said Lefty loves molasses-covered grain and if he finds a pile he will eat it until it’s gone.
“I’m hoping today is the day,” Sullivan said. “Once I get him, I will have a meet-and-greet for the neighbors to meet him at my farm in a safe and secure location.”
Sullivan has been on his farm for about four years. He’s restoring Driscoll Dairy. He’s a woodworker and is restoring the barn and the house to get it back to a working farm again.
Sullivan, originally from Bozrah, fenced in 20 acres on his property and has eight other Scottish Highlands and a couple that walk around and eat invasive species of bush that takes over if it’s not maintained. Sullivan said he would spend 40 hours a week mowing his hillsides if it weren’t for his Scottish Highlands. He also has two white face heifers.
“They are very easy animals to take care of, you just have to make sure they have water, grass and they take care of themselves. The rest of my cows know they have it good because I give them Dunkin’ Donuts every morning. I get all of the ‘day old’ donuts. I go to my fence and ask who wants donuts and everyone comes running. This guy didn’t realize he could get apple fritters everyone morning if he just hung around.”
