Manor couple aims to create pet-finding app after death of 16-year-old goat

When Penny Layne ventured into the woods behind her Manor home on an icy January night, only one objective was on her mind: to find her missing 16-year-old goat, Patrick.

Armed with a flashlight and a cellphone battery life near zero, Layne climbed over downed trees and trudged through the snow blanketing the woods floor.
The chilly air cut through her sweater and vest.

“I was not dressed for going in there,” Layne said, “But I was just determined to find Patrick.”

Patrick escaped from the couple’s 1-acre fenced yard on Jan.
16. He was found dead less than half a mile from their home the next day.

“We have a lot to process,” said Layne, 59. “There’s some things we just can’t talk about right now, just because it hurts too much.”

But that isn’t stopping Layne and her husband, Shawn Murtha, from trying to protect local pet owners from the same fate.

The couple is working to establish a nonprofit, Patrick’s Friends, to connect Westmoreland and Allegheny county pet owners with resources to find their missing pets.

“We’re really turning a bad situation into a positive situation,” said Murtha, 67.

Dog lovers turned goat owners

From the day Layne and Murtha met, they bonded over their love of animals.

Layne has worked more than 25 years as a nationally certified dog trainer, now as a private consultant.
Murtha joins for her appointments.

The couple met through an online dating site in 2006.

“Instead of bringing me roses or candy or anything, he brought a dog toy,” Layne said with a smile.
“I thought that was so sweet.
I knew right then ‘OK, he gets me.’ ”

The two were married in 2007 at Forbes Hospital, where Murtha was receiving care for pancreatitis.
They have fostered countless four-legged friends, primarily high-risk or pregnant female dogs.

But when Layne saw videos of goats online, she couldn’t resist adding another pet to the family.

The couple took in Patrick and his two siblings — Molly and Clover — when they were only 3 months old.
Their Irish names pay tribute to their St.
Patrick’s Day birthday.

The couple’s grandkids grew up feeding Patrick his favorite treat — ice cream cones without the ice cream.

“He ‘talked’ to me all the time,” Layne said.
“If he heard me getting out of the car or the truck or anything, as soon as he heard my voice, he’d start talking.”

Couple searches for missing goat

It wasn’t unusual for Layne to lose sight of Patrick during the day.
He often ventured behind trees or into the barn in the couple’s backyard.

But when Murtha arrived home Jan.
16 to a vacant yard and barn, the couple began to worry.

Layne and Murtha took turns searching the area surrounding their home.

Layne took a shift searching at 6:30 p.m.
She did not make it home until 10:30 p.m., two hours after Murtha called 911.

Manor and Penn Township police searched the dark, cold woods for Layne, later retrieving her from a hunting blind where she sought shelter from the cold.
Penn Township Ambulance crews assessed her vitals before sending her home.

Layne posted about her plight on Facebook.
A volunteer pet search drone team came out the following day, searching for Patrick from the sky for about six hours until it grew too dark to continue.

“The tree canopy back there and the thick brush and the downed trees, it was just very difficult to see anything,” Murtha said.

A local hunter offered to send his tracking dog, Tucker, to search for Patrick around 8 p.m.

Within five minutes, Tucker found Patrick dead, partially covered with snow.

Couple seeks help creating pet-finding app

Though Facebook proved helpful, Murtha said social media is an imperfect solution.

“You don’t know who’s looking at that.
You don’t know if the experienced people are looking at it,” he said.
“They’re not reaching out all the time to people who know what they’re doing.”

He and Layne are on a mission to create a mobile app to track lost pet sightings and connect local residents with pet search groups.

Part of the Patrick’s Friends mission is underway.
Murtha is creating a website and Layne is gathering volunteers to lend their talents to the cause.

The couple will host a kick-off event on Feb.
23 at the Community United Methodist Church in Penn Township to introduce their vision and answer questions.
A celebration of Patrick’s life, complete with a cake and live music, will follow.

“That’s why we’re doing all of this,” Layne said, “so that we can decrease the amount of families that have to go through the experience that we’ve been through.”