Horse That Ran Wild for 8 Years Is Back Home

It's not too unusual to hear stories about lost dogs being reunited with their families after long stretches. Cats, too. But stallions? Such is the case in northwestern Utah, where Mongo the horse is back home after eight years of roaming the desert with his wild cousins, reports KUTV. Owner Shane Adams says Mongo disappeared on a camping trip when he broke free from his tether as a herd of wild mustangs ran by. "I went back every weekend for three years to see if he was there," Adams tells the Washington Post. "I reported him missing and tried every person I could to find him. But I never saw Mongo again."

Until September, that is, when officers from the Bureau of Land Management rounded up Mongo along with other wild horses, noticed his branding, and notified Adams. "It's crazy—he still acts the same, same horse," Adams tells KUTV. "Eight years of being wild and he acts like nothing ever happened." Mongo is approximately 18 years old now, and life in the wild has left him underweight, but Adams says he's now working on getting the horse back up to his normal weight with extra helpings of hay and oats. (More uplifting news stories.)