Friday night in small-town AR

Tonight our dear, lifelong friends Tod and Jan Traughber and their boys came from Searcy to hang out with us. We introduced them to Larry's Pizza (which Tod said was the best pizza he'd ever had) and then, naturally, we went on to Bryant's week-old Target. Jan is one of my sisters in Targethood, so she understands why going to Target would be a fun thing to do on a Friday night. Would you believe Tod and Jan live in a town that doesn't have a Target? And they're not even missionaries!

Oh, and for those of you tracking my meatless diet, don't worry. I had Larry's veggie pizza.

And now, the news from Arkansas. This story appeared in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

Zoo sheep’s kidnapper hospitalized
A 33-year-old homeless man caught with a Little Rock Zoo sheep in a garbage can earlier this year was ordered into the State Hospital on Thursday after a state psychologist found him to be psychotic.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza committed Grady Allen Carnahan for treatment at the State Hospital until doctors can determine if he will ever be fit to stand trial.

“He immediately evidences paranoia delusional thought processes,” psychologist Ed Stafford wrote in his three-page mental evaluation provided to Piazza on Thursday. “Mr. Carnahan acknowledged a number of psychotic thought processes, including his perception that he could hear thoughts or voices emanating from this examiner’s head, including the number seven.”

After a Sept. 15 interview with Carnahan at the county jail, Stafford diagnosed him with psychotic disorder because he could not respond to the psychologist’s questions “in any sort of logical, coherent or goal-directed manner,” the report said.

Carnahan was arrested Feb. 21 after zoo security guards saw him dragging a trash can with a sheep in it through the park. He had been warned to stay off zoo grounds two days earlier after he had been caught on the grounds and security found indications he had been sleeping in the sheep barn, the report said.

Carnahan told police he was a doctor and the sheep was sick, but the 85-pound ewe was too heavy for him to carry so he put the animal in the trash can to take to his car. He later told officers the sheep belonged to his grandmother, the report said. Police reported that he also claimed the Southdown Babydoll sheep was his mother, Dolly.

Zoo officials said the sheep lost some wool in its encounter with Carnahan but did not suffer any serious injuries.

Asked to explain the incident, Carnahan was not able to discuss it rationally, Stafford wrote.

“He attempted to explain, at length, a very elaborate and at times bizarre delusional belief system regarding the sheep in question, most of which this examiner could not understand,” the report said. “He was hyper-verbal and this examiner had to interrupt him several times, just to attempt to explain the purpose and reasons for this evaluation.”

Carnahan had to be removed from the courtroom Thursday for being disruptive when he refused to stop talking. Carnahan is charged with felony violation of farm animal and research facilities, and misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.