Tuttle Residents Puzzled After Pets Vanish

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

TUTTLE, Oklahoma -- Residents in Tuttle are keeping a close eye on their pets after a number of animals in the area have vanished.

Ramona Huffman said she will never forget what happened early one morning when she went out on her back porch with her dog Duchess.

"All of a sudden out of this side of my face, I saw something, and it was just totally flash. She whimpered once and was gone," Huffman said.

Huffman said that was the last time she ever saw Duchess.

Tuttle police said they receive a lot of lost pet reports, but recently those reports have accelerated.

"We're having a lot of small animals, dogs, cats, small sheep, small pygmie goats, disappearing," said Tuttle Deputy Police Chief Capt. Bill Boyd.

Most of those disappearances have occurred along or near Frisco Road. Coyotes are known to live nearby.

But Huffman said she doesn't think it was a coyote that got her companion.

"It didn't move like a coyote. It was larger than a coyote," Huffman said.

There is an exotic animal sanctuary just down the road in Tuttle, where there are lions, tigers, and bears, but Tiger Safari owner Bill Meadows said none of his animals are missing

However, Meadows said there have been recent reports of a bobcat sighted near Blanchard.

Steve Waterman said he thinks a cat like that may have carried off his dog.

"Cougar or bobcat. I know a bobcat got after one of my neighbor's about two months, but that dog was OK. But this was much larger than a bobcat. Probably like a cougar or mountain lion or something," Waterman said.

Tuttle police have advised residents to keep a close eye on their children, keep small pets inside, and to not leave any food outside.