Baldwin Park Police Lt. Dennis Kies is...

Baldwin Park Police Lt. Dennis Kies is a little sheepish about the progress of one of his latest cases. “This thing is going to follow me forever,” he groaned, explaining that the case of Gilbert the Missing Goat is “still under investigation.”

However, the victim in question is rolling in clover once again, or at least getting plenty of oats at the county animal shelter barn. Gilbert, 4 months old, was kidnaped (no pun intended) in the dead of night a couple of weeks ago from the county animal shelter where he lived with his mother and sister.

A couple hours after the shelter reported the missing kid, police received a call from someone in Baldwin Park complaining about the awful crying coming from the back yard of a yellow house. The caller wanted to know if the area was zoned for goats.

The police, accompanied by Dan Sturkie, animal control district supervisor, and his assistant, Windie Guerrero, went looking for Gilbert. There were several yellow houses in the block, so Guerrero started calling “Here, baby goat, here baby goat.”

Sturkie said, “Windie actually got an answer; the little fellow started crying and we zeroed in on the house.”

They found a very upset Gilbert in the back yard, chained to a fence. “He’d never been away from home, and was really glad to see us,” Sturkie said. Gilbert’s mother, a stray, had four kids at the shelter. Two have been adopted. But the shelter staff is keeping Gilbert and mom as part of their exhibit for school children. (Gilbert, by the way, was named after Gilbert Zamora, a kennel aide, who helps care for the goats.)

Residents of the house where Gilbert was found said they don’t know how the goat got into their yard, Kies said.

“We don’t have any eyewitnesses to this crime,” Kies said. “I guess Gilbert should just be thankful that he didn’t end up as main course at someone’s barbecue.”

While the county shelter was busy looking for Gilbert, the city Department of Animal Regulation has been looking for nominees for its annual St. Francis of Assisi Award for 1989.

Each year, the department’s five-member Board of Commissioners presents a St. Francis medallion to someone who has made outstanding contributions in providing humane animal care and welfare. Nominations can be submitted to Animal Regulation, 200 N. Main St., Room 1650, Los Angeles, 90012.

Last year’s winner was Joy Goldschmidt, who founded the Cassidy Foundation, a group that promotes free spaying and neutering programs. The foundation, of course, was named after an animal--Cassidy, a three-legged mutt, who is the mascot of the East Valley Animal Care Center.