This Pierce County Fire Department Might Have Your Sheep

Graham Fire & Rescue’s new lawnmower has a distinct feature: horns.

Pat, a sheep (ewe) with horns, has moved to Station 96 at 12827 224th St. E. She shares about two acres of land with her new fire goat roommates, Drip and Torch. Their mission is to take care of the yard of the fire station.

Captain Andrew Kolibas and his team first discovered Pat one morning in August. They thought their goats had escaped, but discovered it was a stray sheep that had made it to the fire station.

“We did a few laps around the station, and it was way too fast to catch up,” Kolibas said of Pat, who didn’t have a name at the time.

Pat eventually walked away from the station, and the crew thought they would never see her again. A few days later, an off-duty Graham fire captain who lived nearby called Kolibas to tell him about a sheep taken from a neighbor’s kennel.

It was Pat.

Kolibas brought a horse trailer to transport Pat and keep her at the station while they searched for her owners. The fire department posted information about the lost sheep on social media.

As of October 4, no one had claimed Pat. Kolibas said firefighters are still waiting for the owner to come forward. Until then, she will stay at the station.

“We’re guessing maybe it’s some kind of auction because he has an ear tag with numbers that don’t mean anything to me,” Kolibas said. “On the back was what appeared to be an auction tag.”

They named Pat after Pat Dale, a fire chief from Graham who retired in January. When they named her, Kolibas and his team weren’t sure if she was a male or female sheep. He said that since Pat is a unisex name, they kept it.

Pat’s goat housemates have been at the station since 2012, around the time it was built. Kolibas joked about asking the goats to tend the grass and blackberries, and the then-captain agreed.

“She really, really loves our goats, especially Drip,” Kolibas said of Pat. “She just follows her on her hip.”

The station also hosted other animal visitors. Some lost dogs made their way to the resort last summer, spokeswoman Brianna Baker said. Firefighters helped reconnect them with their owners.

Baker said they wanted to make it clear that the station is not the place to drop off lost pets.

“We’re always happy to help, but our stations aren’t the best place to have lost animals,” Baker said.