As a silver lining, of sorts, at least Nathan made the six O'clock news broadcast.
He hadn't realized what a precarious hold he held over his reindeer body's instincts, so when he panicked over his lack of ability to use the device the rather large quadruped had used its sheer bulk to bust out of the garage and rampage through the suburban neighborhood. Mothers grabbed their fascinated children who were convinced that one of the herd connected with Santa's sleigh had strayed. Finally, as he made noisy progress on a neighborhood street, someone thought to call the authorities, who spent five minutes ruling out a call from a holiday drunk or teenaged prankster.
Nathan considered the response inordinate and unfair. Men in combat gear and armed with dangerous-looking weapons converged on the idle cul-de-sac. Within a half hour, Nathan had been rendered more mellow thanks to a tranquilizer dart, which allowed the officers to load him into a cattle trailer they had borrowed from a local facility.
They had also utilized some cattle prods, which caused Nathan to bellow but still maneuvered him quite easily into the waiting trailer. "Please, you don't understand," he tried to explain, failing because, well, reindeer can't talk.
The facility that provided the trailer didn't do so for purely altruistic civic reasons.
The manager of the local petting zoo was already seeing dollar signs. He would have plenty of time to advertise the addition of a genuine reindeer to his menagerie. Kids would be begging their parents for a chance to observe the dislocated deer from the far North. Some of the advertising was free of charge, thanks to the footage shown on the local news about the heroic actions of local authorities to apprehend a potential threat. Thousands of viewers watched the footage of the massive male reindeer being loaded into the back of the trailer as a news anchor's voiceover announced that the deer would become a temporary resident at Matheson's Menagerie.
In a brief interview, Mr. Matheson, owner and proprietor of the petting zoo, told the reporter on the scene that he had considered adding a camel to his collection but was more than willing to take in the homeless reindeer until the true owners came forward to claim him. Of course, he secretly hoped that all the media attention, and the expense incurred by the local authorities to curtail the rampaging reindeer, might keep any owner from surfacing any time soon.
Transported to a secure pen that held a few goats and sheep, as well, Nathan faced the prospect of celebrating the holidays in the Chronivac-rendered guise of a male reindeer. He ducked his head and felt his heavy antlers rattle against the surrounding fence.