On Saturday morning, a water buffalo escaped from the custody of his owner and began galavanting around Pleasant Hill in Des Moines. Now, social media has fallen in love with the animal, lovingly naming him “Phill” after the city.

That morning, Phill’s caretaker was attempting to load the animal into a trailer to be euthanized. Apparently, Phill had other plans and managed to escape the grasp of his caretaker before exploring the city of Des Moines.

During his exploration, many Des Moines residents captured photos and videos of Phill through their doorbell cameras and out of their front windows. These videos caught popularity on social media, even resulting in poems and songs written about the animal.

Pleasant Hill resident Faithyna Leonard woke to Phill roaming her backyard Saturday morning. She went outside to see what was going on, only to find three police cars on her property doing their best to apprehend the animal. Eventually, police left the scene, leaving Leonard alone with the animal.

“It didn’t seem aggressive, he just seemed dazed and confused,” Leonard said. “It just walked right past us and walked down the road.”

Leonard said by the time police had left the scene, Phill had been nonlethally shot in an attempt to sedate the animal enough to apprehend him.

After walking away from Leonard, Phill wandered into her neighbor’s garage, prompting the police to show up on the scene for the second time.

Through the effort of the Blank Park Zoo, the Animal Rescue League and the Des Moines Police department, Phill was finally tranquilized and captured Tuesday. After being apprehended, he was transferred to the care of the Iowa State Lloyd Medical Center and Large Animal Hospital.

Shawn Camp, executive director and founder of the Iowa Farm Sanctuary, has been working closely with the Large Animal Hospital regarding Phill’s care.

“Luckily the bullet did not penetrate his lungs or his abdominal wall, which was the best case scenario considering where he was shot,” Camp said. “That meant that the entrance wound was the biggest concern.”

Upon admittance to the Large Animal Hospital, veterinarians found that the entrance wound was already infected and some tissue around the wound was dead, also known as necrosis.

“It was very infected and already become necrotic,” Camp said. “So they started the process of [cleaning] the wound, removing the necrotic skin, and treating with antibiotics.”

After he settles in a little more, the veterinary staff plans to perform x-rays to determine the location of the bullet within Phill’s body.

As of Wednesday, the Iowa Farm Sanctuary has full ownership of Phill and plans to provide him a safe and comfortable home when he is returned to full health.

For more information, visit the Iowa Farm Sanctuary’s website.