{"id":518594,"date":"2026-06-30T18:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/518594\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:01:11","slug":"a-lot-of-prayers-and-a-lot-of-good-luck-fredericksburg-veterinarian-describes-safe-return-of-gracie-the-giraffe-after-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/518594\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A lot of prayers and a lot of good luck’ | Fredericksburg veterinarian describes safe return of Gracie the giraffe after escape"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 16-foot-tall giraffe, who was on the loose for nearly two weeks after escaping from a ranch near Leakey, was safely returned on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Gracie the giraffe is back home after spending nearly two weeks roaming the Texas Hill Country<\/a> following an escape that captured national attention.<\/p>\n

The 16-foot-tall giraffe was safely relocated on Monday morning to Cedar Hollow Ranch, near Leakey, after search crews found her three days earlier about 4 miles south of the ranch where she escaped earlier this month.<\/p>\n


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The operation was led by Dr. Pat O’Neil, owner of Pedernales Veterinary Center in Fredericksburg, who also helped transport Gracie to the ranch in May.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve done [giraffe transfers] remotely like this before,” O\u2019Neil said during an interview on Monday afternoon with KVUE, adding, \u201cThis was probably the most exciting one I’ve done in 43 years \u2026 And a little bit of attention on her, so it put a little pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real County officials spent nearly two weeks searching for Gracie after she escaped from the ranch.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Nathan Johnson said deputies and volunteers used helicopters and drones to search the rugged terrain before an aerial search located the giraffe on Friday.<\/p>\n

According to O’Neil, crews found Gracie around 6:30 a.m. Monday in the same remote area where she had previously been spotted.<\/p>\n

Despite nearly two weeks in the wild, O’Neil said Gracie appeared healthy and had access to plenty of food and water.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got her safe and sound back home,” he said.<\/p>\n

The relocation effort began around 4 a.m. Monday and lasted until about 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

O’Neil said Gracie was tranquilized from a helicopter before a team on the ground moved in.<\/p>\n

“Out of the helicopter, she’s remotely darted,” O’Neil explained. “It takes about three minutes for the medicine to take effect. Then she falls down, and she fell gently on a safe, good spot.”<\/p>\n

Once sedated, the crew placed a blindfold, halter and ropes on Gracie before reversing the tranquilizer.<\/p>\n

“When she’s wide awake, of course, she doesn’t know where she’s at, and we have to guide her with about eight people to keep her under control,” O’Neil said.<\/p>\n

The team loaded Gracie into a trailer in less than 10 minutes before transporting her back to the ranch.<\/p>\n

O’Neil credited the successful rescue to a coordinated team effort involving Pedernales Veterinary Center, helicopter crews from Tango 82 Aviation in Fredericksburg, nearby ranches that granted access to their property and a hauler from the San Angelo area that brought a special giraffe trailer.<\/p>\n

“We did good, and again, a lot of prayers and a lot of good luck,” he said.<\/p>\n

O’Neil said he plans to check on Gracie again in the coming days. After several long days coordinating the rescue, he joked his immediate plans were much simpler:\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m going to go home and take a nap.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 16-foot-tall giraffe, who was on the loose for nearly two weeks after escaping from a ranch near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-518594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}