There were a lot of things that Shelly Reynolds might have expected to find in her driveway when she opened the door to leave Tuesday morning.

A five-and-a-half-foot bird named Curtis would not have been on that list.

“I walked outside with my son, who was going to school, and it was just standing there in my driveway right outside my door,” Reynolds said. “My son said, ‘That’s the ostrich that we saw yesterday on the bus.’”

According to various reports, it is believed that Curtis was one of three belonging to a local farmer.

Miller Cary, who captured the bird, said he believes one emu was shot after reportedly scratching its owner, and that two Suffolk citizens may have tried to rescue the other birds, after which point the birds escaped and were roaming local neighborhoods Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Cary was called to a Suffolk golf course by his sister, who owns a horse farm and who received a call from the golf course on Monday morning.

“He’d been growling at golfers and eating their golf balls,” Cary said. “They’d find piles of pooped golf balls. They called animal control, but they said they couldn’t do anything about it.”

After 45 minutes of working with Curtis, Cary was able to coax it with a hand of sand, which the emu ate, and he carefully tied a noose around its neck to help guide it to the vehicle.

“His growl sounds like an alligator’s,” Cary said. “He’s got this big, pointy beak and huge toenails. If he wanted to he could mess you up, but he’s very docile and sweet.”

Curtis was taken to a farm, where he escaped again and was spotted wandering the surrounding King’s Fork neighborhoods on Tuesday.

“It tried to attack my cat,” Reynolds said. “My cat came up to it to sniff it, and the emu looked at it and went down like it was going to do something. The cat jumped straight up into the air. It was hilarious — absolutely wild.”

“It was awesome,” said Ginny Blair, 13. “It was at my neighbor’s house. We walked up to it, and I fed it and pet it.”

On Monday afternoon, Reynolds’ son said, the emu was in front of his school bus and would turn every time the bus would make a turn, causing the bus to be late getting him home.

After discovering Curtis the emu was loose again, Cary captured it with his bare hands and took it to his father’s horse farm, where Curtis stayed in a boarded corral overnight.

Through the grapevine, Cary heard of and was able to secure a home for Curtis at Oak Crest Farm near Smithfield, which is home to emus, llamas, zebras and other exotic animals. On Wednesday evening, Cary was transporting the bird via trailer to his new home.

“Animal control had been talking about shooting him, because he could hurt children in the neighborhood, and we couldn’t keep him here at the horse farm,” Cary said.

“I’m glad he has a good home,” Reynolds said. “Who knows what would have happened to him otherwise.”

Suffolk officials said Wednesday night that they believe the other emu is still on the loose.