Sauce Boss the rodeo bull becomes latest US animal escape artist

The Guardian

09-07-2025

Animals that have proven themselves to be escape artists as of late in the US have included a terrier and nearly four dozen monkeys. And now a rodeo bull reportedly referred to by the names of Sauce Boss and Twinkle Toes can join their ranks after breaking free from his handlers and spending four days at large.
The bull in question was being unloaded in preparation for the Snowmass Village, Colorado, rodeo on 2 July when he somehow got away, local police chief Brian Olson told the state's Aspen Times. Olson suspected the creature found and forced his way through a gap in the fencing that was being used during the unloading.
Authorities spent several hours looking for the taurine fugitive, but he eluded them, primarily by heading into tall brush and trees in the village's Horse Ranch neighborhood, Olson said. Police then issued an alert asking the public to call them if they saw the escaped rodeo bull – and to avoid either approaching the animal or letting pets get near him.
Olson said the bull came in and out of view while remaining in that brush in the coming days. A local homeowner told CBS Colorado that cowboys roped the bull at one point during the animal's abscondence – but, as it rained heavily, he managed to slip away.
The bull on Sunday then 'did make himself visible' for a longer period than had been usual and let cowboys working for his owner approach him. Olson said that was when the bovine's owner's cowboys finally caught him, and they began planning on him to soon make his debut at the rodeo – which is held every Wednesday during the summer.
There were conflicting reports about the bull's moniker. CBS Colorado reported he went by Sauce Boss. But, in an interview with Cowboy State Daily, Snowmass Village police officer Zach Wilcher said he understood the bull's name to be Twinkle Toes.
Whatever the case, corners of the internet dedicated to lighthearted news stories seized on Sauce Boss/Twinkle Toes's time on the lam.
News consumers in the US are fascinated by tales of pets or animals in captivity making daring dashes for freedom.
For instance, a wiry terrier named Scrim earned a reputation as New Orleans's most ungovernable dog after he bolted his adoptive family's yard in April 2024 and spent about six months on the run. After he was caught, he escaped again in November by chewing through a window screen on the second floor of his new adoptive home, leaping 13ft to a driveway and going on the run for another three months before being captured again.
Both hunts for Scrim were elaborate, involving people equipped with traps, nets and tranquilizer guns. He earned a measure of social media stardom as users posted videos from cellphones and security cameras that recorded him jaunting through the streets to the distress of those searching for him.
Meanwhile, as another example, in November, 43 rhesus macaque monkeys earned international headlines by escaping from a South Carolina research facility into nearby woods after an employee failed to fully lock the animals' enclosure. It took until January for the last of those monkeys to be recaptured.
Most were lured back into captivity with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Julius Constantine Motal contributed to reporting