![Llama Ran Away From His Dentist Appointment, May Have Not ‘Kept up on Brushing and Flossing'](https://d.hngn.com/en/full/291750/llama-ran-away-his-dentist-appointment-may-have-not-kept-brushing-flossing.jpg?w=736&f=0d1e2c1adbf8892c8feda597b7ae3872)
A llama on the loose in Maine on Wednesday apparently made his escape from home when he saw the dentist at the gate, police said.
The Bangor Police Department said Animal Control Officer Trish Bruen responded when a resident reported seeing a llama on the loose on Wednesday. The caller reported the brown and white llama was headed toward Stillwater Avenue.
"Having a fantastic gift of recollection, Trish knows where most of Bangor's llamas live," retired police Lt. Tim Cotton wrote alongside photos on Facebook. "She quickly phoned Rina, who confirmed that the llama on the lam was likely 'her Jeffrey'."
According to police, Rina had opened her gate for a veterinarian who specializes in equine dentistry, "and that's when the loutish llama lit out for parts unknown, possibly Lewiston."
But Jeffrey, nicknamed Jeff, "didn't have the hardihood" to be on the run for long, and returned home on his own before Bruen could arrive at the scene, "probably because of the humidity, but maybe for other reasons; we simply don't know."
Once Bruen arrived to find Jeff home safe and sound, she took the opportunity to meet "a couple of pleasant pigs and a hairless cat named Scully," Cotton said. "There was also a goat, but Trish forgot to get his name."
As for why Jefferey, like many humans, was scared to see the dentist, Cotton had a theory.
"It is possible that Jeffrey hasn't kept up on brushing and flossing twice a day and was embarrassed that the whole barn would soon know," he wrote.
-with reporting by TMX