An old horse named Razzle Dazzle and a loaf of white bread: Inside the runaway zebra rescue

No one knew where Sugar had gone.

Five days earlier, Sugar and three other zebras, including her 4-month-old filly, bolted from a horse trailer on Interstate 90, east of Seattle. While the other zebras were returned, Sugar disappeared into the towering evergreen woods of the Cascade Mountains.

Pamela Trujillo knew, though. The 67-year-old barn manager watched, delighted, as the zebra befriended an old gelding who lives on her property, an Arabian named Razzle Dazzle.

“Razzle was her security blanket,” Trujillo said, describing how the two spent hours nose to nose. "He’s just a love. It was nice that he was able to enjoy a once in a lifetime girl."

It was this unlikely friendship that helped rescuers find Sugar, after an intensive six-day search involving multiple agencies, round-the-clock media coverage, and efforts by two separate groups to corral the runaway zebra.

On Friday, finally, Sugar’s adventure came to an end.

A retired rodeo cowboy from Mount Vernon, Washington, successfully captured Sugar and returned her to her owner, Kristine Keltgen, a 35-year-old aesthetician who is opening a petting zoo in Montana.

‘Would you be willing to help me?’

David Danton, 52, was the cowboy. He’d met Keltgen the week before, on the day her zebras sprang from her trailer. She’d just acquired them in Winlock, Washington, and was transporting them to Montana.

Danton had helped corral the zebras, and they’d checked in with Keltgen a few times throughout the week.

On Thursday, the fifth day of the search, Keltgen texted Danton. “Would you be willing to help me?” she said, according to Danton.

She was anxious, Danton said, and pressure was building. The county had closed mountain biking trails; law enforcement had gotten in touch; a cougar had been spotted close to where Sugar roamed. (Zebra versus cougar, who wins? was a common social media thread.) Keltgen was losing sleep.

The Dantons knew the feeling – they’d had rodeo animals get loose before – and said yes, no cost to her, right on it, because that’s how cowboys do.

Danton started making calls and learned from a mountain biker that Sugar was spending time in a pasture in a tiny subdivision with giant homes and sprawling acreage.

Danton connected with the Trujillos and learned about Sugar’s budding friendship with Razzle.

With Sugar around, 36-year-old Razzle ran around the pasture. At first, Trujillo wondered if Sugar had upset him, but then she noticed how much time they spent together.

“He was probably like, ‘I still got it, I’m a studly boy,’” Trujillo said.

Concerned about Sugar’s health, Trujillo fed her twice a day – hay and grain, sometimes apples and grapes. “I didn’t want her to get sick,” she said.

She called the county, and was asked to corral the zebra, but she didn’t have the gear. So she kept tending to the zebra, who allowed her to get close.

‘The Great Zebra Roundup’

On Friday, the Dantons and several volunteers drove to the Trujillo’s property. Danton wore a giant cowboy hat and a sticker promoting his home building company. Why not sneak in a little marketing while rescuing a zebra, he figured? He and his small crew dubbed it “The Zebra Roundup Crew.”

Looking out over the pasture, they noticed a striped face blinking at them, 600 feet away.

“Just her ears and her nose were popping above the bushes,” Danton said. “I’m like, holy smokes.”

Danton approached Sugar slowly, speaking quietly. “Good girl,” he said. “We’ve been looking for you.”

He held out half a loaf of white bread – candy to zebras – and a bag of oats.

Sugar calmly followed Danton, who walked backward into the pasture. Once in, he dumped the oats on the ground. Sugar couldn’t resist, which gave Danton a moment to close the gate quietly behind her.

As the crew erected a pen around Sugar, they heard a buzzing sound above.

It was a drone, surveilling Sugar.

“Everyone was frustrated,” Danton said. “That’s like a giant mosquito or bird that this zebra has never seen before.”

Unbeknownst to Danton, another crew was trying to rescue the zebra. They’d set out feeding stations and were working with a veterinarian with zebra experience.

The Dantons had encountered these folks the week before, when the zebras had broken free of the trailer. It had been tense.

Susan Burk, a local with animal rescue experience, said she worried the Dantons were doing this as a publicity stunt. She could see through the drone footage that Danton was unfurling a banner promoting his business, and she wondered if he was keeping the zebra in the pasture until media showed up – so that an ad for his business would be on TV.

Danton called that absurd, saying they were waiting for animal control. “And yeah,” he added. “I did bring out a banner to promote my business. Do you know how much marketing costs? It wasn’t harming the zebra though. The zebra didn’t care if I brought out a banner.”

As Danton’s crew waited, Sugar seemed unfazed. So did Razzle, who was in a nearby pen.

“She was quiet, he was quiet, nobody was bellowing, nobody was screaming,” Pamela Trujillo said. “Everybody was like, this is the way it should be.”

Animal control arrived and determined Sugar appeared healthy. Cameron Satterfield, spokesperson for Regional Animal Services of King County, said Sugar had been seen grazing on the grass, and likely drank from streams.

“Not to mention, there are quite a few people in that North Bend area who have horses and probably stock tanks and horse feed,” Satterfield said. “It doesn't appear that she was lacking food or water.”

The next day, the Dantons drove Sugar to Spokane, where they handed her off to Keltgen. The transfer was seamless, Danton said.

Sugar walked into her trailer and immediately began eating hay. She would soon be reunited with the herd – and her baby girl.

KUOW's Jason Pagano contributed reporting.