Ruffled feathers: A Puyallup-area family is missing their emu. Have you seen it?

PUYALLUP - — It’s not your ordinary missing pet.

A Puyallup-area family is missing their emu, and they need your help finding her.

Rachelle Cassidy told KIRO 7 News that the two-year-old bird disappeared from her yard over the weekend.

She says the bird should be easy to spot.

“She’s like five and a half feet tall when she stands up so she is definitely not discrete,” Cassidy told KIRO 7.

She says Saturday morning, she went out to feed her three birds when she noticed her gate was open.

One of her male emus was still in the enclosure, but the other one, and the female, were nowhere to be seen.

“My initial thought was okay who left the gate open?”

Cassidy said it has a difficult latch, and that her family remembers closing the gate and putting a blanket over the latch.

She tells KIRO 7 she is worried someone wandered by and opened it.

“I had a meltdown and ran around the neighborhood looking for them, called everybody I knew to come out and start a search party,” Cassidy said.

After searching the area, Cassidy said she found her male emu near a retainer pond by her house.

“He was a bit shaken up because we had to hike him out of the pretty steep ravine,” Cassidy said.

“We had to pick him up and carry him out of there, which they don’t like, but he seems to be recovered now.”

No sightings of the female emu have been reported.

Cassidy says the bird is friendly, and shares this advice for if you encounter her:

“The best thing would be to rattle some food and coax her into a yard if you have one and call us so we can come get her. Getting her in a car is not going to be fun for anybody so I’m hoping close so we can get her no problem.”

Cassidy says animal control, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the humane society have all been notified of the disappearance.

To report a sighting of the emu, call 253-495-9477.

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