Contributed photoFrom left, Murphy Martin, Dalton Police Department Officer Allexis Rittenhouse, Buckshot the horse and Officer Matias Castillo pose after the three were able to take Buckshot into custody Sunday morning.

DALTON, Ga. — Two Dalton Police Department officers faced a situation Sunday morning that had the makings of a Saturday matinee western.

A fugitive on the loose with the intimidating name of Buckshot, who had gone on the run after outsmarting those who tried to keep him contained. A lawman armed with a lasso on the trail. A game of cat and mouse as the law closed in only to have the suspect escape. And an ending with a sausage biscuit used to subdue the target and with the scofflaw “in custody.”

A sausage biscuit?

Yes, this was no dangerous criminal, no armed cattle rustler, no stagecoach robber, and there were no high-noon draws. This was a pony on the loose in the streets of Dalton, subdued with the help of a sausage biscuit. Buckshot had been able to escape from a children’s party through a left-open gate Saturday afternoon and spent the night “on the lam,” according to one of the most amusing and lighthearted police incident reports in recent memory.

Murphy Martin, who reported the horse to 911, was able to subdue Buckshot with a homemade sausage biscuit and DPD Officer Matias Castillo slipped a lasso around the horse’s neck.

No, lassos have not been made standard issue to Dalton police officers.

Castillo, who wrote the report, admitted to police spokesman Bruce Frazier he takes some ribbing from his fellow officers for keeping a lasso in the trunk of his cruiser. Castillo and Officer Allexis Rittenhouse — who also responded to the call Saturday morning shortly after 8 — were both going through training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth on Monday and could not be reached for comment. But in an email, Frazier said Castillo’s extra law enforcement equipment came in handy.

“He says he’s always kept a lasso in his trunk and that people have made fun of him for it, but who is laughing now?” Frazier asked. “This is one of the better police reports of all time.”

Castillo and Rittenhouse were sent out on a call on Mountain View Drive about a pony “cantering down the roadway.” Rittenhouse got there first and was walking up to Buckshot, who wasn’t having it and began to trot away.

Castillo then joined the chase in his patrol car, pulling beside the horse as he saw it was wearing a halter around his head, but as he got closer, the horse was spooked and again began to “canter away.”

Castillo then pulled in front of the horse in order to keep it away from oncoming traffic and cornered it in the parking lot of a business on South Grimes Street. Once in the parking lot, Buckshot found some grass and began grazing as Castillo went into cowboy mode and pulled out the lasso from the trunk.

Since the horse was grazing, Castillo couldn’t wrangle the horse with the lasso and rein him in. Martin, who works part time as a photographer and said he found the horse in his yard Saturday morning as he was leaving to go to a photo shoot in Rome, showed up with his breakfast.

“When I came out of my house and saw the horse, I called my dad to come outside,” Martin said. “I told him either I needed to go back to bed or there is a horse walking through our yard. Yeah, I was shocked. This isn’t a neighborhood to see a lot of livestock.”

After giving the horse a chance to get a sniff of the sausage biscuit, Martin said he and Castillo set the biscuit on the ground with the lasso around it. When the horse got a taste of Martin’s homemade culinary skills, Castillo was able to easily lasso him.

“The horse seemed to be wandering around looking for his breakfast,” Martin said. “The biscuit was pretty much all I had. I went and got the biscuit, and all three of us approached it kind of slowly. We got the lasso over its neck and then took a selfie with our new friend.”

Martin said he had another reason for taking the picture with Buckshot. Knowing he was going to be late for his photo shoot, he would have to explain why he was delayed.

“I knew I was going to be behind, and I knew they weren’t going to believe me,” he said. “I showed them pictures when I got over to Rome and they just started laughing.”

With the horse in tow, Castillo walked it down Stacy Drive and the owner, Enrique Mendez Gomez, pulled up and identified the horse. Gomez said the horse had been at his house for a party but a gate was left open and Buckshot ran away.

Now that he has helped catch one escapee, Martin said he hopes to get another chance to help out law enforcement.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Martin said. “I told Castillo I needed a ride-along so we can find some more fugitive horses. I can bait them and he can lasso them.”

Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok would be proud.