Chrissy the Emu is home.
In case, dear readers, you missed the huge news shared by the Arkansas Times this week, Chrissy flew the coop from her home near West Little Rock about a month ago. Since then, there have been dozens of sightings of the bird across Central Arkansas.
Photos posted in numerous Facebook groups provide insight into Chrissy’s Tour de Central Arkansas. She’s been spotted in Paron, Benton, Hot Springs Village and numerous places in between. Apparently she may have even chased someone’s dog. All told, the bird traveled at least 50 miles from home, which is pretty amazing.
Chrissy’s owners, Jerry and Leslie Simecka, confirmed that Chrissy is now back on their farm that’s located between West Little Rock and Perryville. She returned about 1:30 p.m. Thursday after she was spotted again in Hot Springs Village Thursday morning.
Jerry Simecka told the Arkansas Times that he received a call early Thursday about her whereabouts, and drove to the Hot Springs Village area to try to catch her with the assistance of local animal control.
“She was wandering around a neighborhood there,” Jerry Simecka said. “We were able to coral her into a yard [with a fence] and close it up.”
A family friend friend brought a horse trailer to the house, located in a neighborhood near Hot Springs Village. Jerry Simecka said Chrissy wasn’t in a super great mood in the beginning, but she eventually calmed down. “She ran away from us a number of times,” he said.
He was able to finally pick the sweet bird up (emus can weigh up to 100 pounds) and put her in the trailer and drive her home, where she’s now back in a pasture with the four other emus the family keeps as pets. “She seems OK from what we can tell,” Jerry Simecka said. “We do know from reports that she was getting into deer feeders and feeding off of deer food. She seems pretty healthy.”
Chrissy? That you?
“I am impressed she traveled so much and got to see the world,” Jerry Simecka said. “I am impressed she still looks very healthy and was able to get food. We were both worried about her getting ill or injured. It is a relief.”
“Now she has to get back into the swing of things here,” he said. Chrissy and the other emus “are setting up a pecking order again, but that is to be expected.”
The Simeckas are planning on building a higher fence to keep Chrissy from wandering off again.
