Sheep that went missing in bushfire turns up seven years later

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April 16 (UPI) -- An Australian family said a sheep that fled during bushfires seven years ago has been recaptured -- along with a whole lot of new fleece.

Alice Gray of Dunalley, Tasmania, said her family decided to hold her son's birthday party at the back of their property while in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and while cooking sausage they spotted a white, fluffy shape on the other side of a dam.

Gray's husband went to investigate when the rest of the family headed back to the house, and a few minutes later she received a phone call from him confirming the shape had been Prickles, a sheep that fled when bushfires in 2013 destroyed the farm's fencing.

"He gave me a call saying he chased her, leapt on her, and he was holding her down and we all had to go and help," Gray told ABC Radio Hobart.

Gray said her family is now holding a contest for members of the public to guess Prickles' weight before her first shearing in seven years.

"The most important part to us is that we are raising money for the UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, as unlike Prickles, people in camps can't socially isolate," Gray told the Guardian.