Rush-Hour Roundup

Talk about your threatened rural lifestyle.

Karen Ingrassia awoke early Tuesday to find her horse on the lam, two lambs on the loose, and several pygmy goats, um, born free.

But she probably should have seen it coming the night before. In fact, she did see a version of it the night before.

Ingrassia said she fell asleep watching “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” a 1993 film in which two dogs and a cat are separated from their masters but rejoin them after an arduous trek over rugged mountains.

As it happened, life imitated art, albeit in the less treacherous confines of Victory Boulevard. Less treacherous except perhaps during the crush of the morning commute.

“I got up at 6, looked in the corral and they were gone,” said Ingrassia, who keeps more than two dozen animals on her one-acre property in Reseda.

It was, she realized, a mutiny in the barnyard.

Clad in pink shorts and a Minnie Mouse T-shirt, she yelled to her boyfriend and jumped into her car, all the while praying that her animals would be safe.

“I was so afraid Lacy was going to get hurt,” Ingrassia said of her palomino. “The whole time I was hoping she wouldn’t get hit by a car.”

Police, meanwhile, had already received several calls about a horse and a goat wandering down Victory Boulevard near Wilbur Avenue about 8:30 a.m.

Police quickly shut down the busy thoroughfare to prevent injuries to animals or drivers. Then, several LAPD officers teamed up with animal control officers and embarked on a rush-hour roundup.

It was a challenge, authorities said, but they managed to capture the goats by using the swarm technique and they employed the more subtle, community-policing approach on the horse.

“We’ve had mountain lions, rattlesnakes, even a bear up in Porter Ranch,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Gregory Renner of the West Valley Division.

“But it’s usually one at a time. I can’t remember the last time we had something like this.”

After tracking down two of her goats, Salt and Pepper, along some railroad tracks, Ingrassia caught up with LAPD officers who had located two others in a nearby nursery. There, they also found Lacy, the horse.

The lambs named Blacky and Baby, meanwhile, were safe and sound at a neighbor’s home.

Victory was reopened after being shut down for nearly an hour. Ingrassia, who said her property is zoned for some farm animals, was not cited.

In addition to Tuesday’s furry fugitives, Ingrassia’s menagerie includes 10 chickens, six rabbits, two pit bulls and a pot-bellied pig.

“I just love them,” Ingrassia said. “They eat before I do.”

As to how the animals got out in the first place, Ingrassia speculated that the escape was the work of Lacy the horse, who broke out of the corral either by using her nose or a swift kick of her hoof.

“Lacy’s the only one that has the strength to do it,” Ingrassia said.

“A lot of times she’ll knock over the chicken coop. She’ll look at me like, ‘Mom, look what i did. Now you have to fix it.’ ”