NATCHEZ — Dogs, cats, cows, chickens, horses, pigs, deer, buffalo and even iguanas — you name the animal, and retired Natchez animal control officer Lisa Freeman said she has probably had some experience with it.

From helping her family care for livestock and riding horses competitively growing up, Freeman said she has always been an animal lover.

Freeman said she is happy she spent 24 years of her life showing her love for animals working as the city’s animal control officer.

“The most rewarding thing was being able to help them and spending most of my time trying to give animals better lives,” she said.

Freeman, who recently retired, said the most memorable moment as an animal control officer came when she was called out to a church after a deer had jumped in the building.

“It had torn that place up,” she said. “I had to use my tranquilizer gun to sedate it so we could get it out of there. It took six hours.”

The toughest moment, Freeman said, was having to tell an acquaintance that she had found the woman’s two dogs dead on the highway after they had gotten out.

“They had never gotten out before, and it was so sad,” Freeman said. “It was really hard to have to tell her that.”

A pet iguana stuck in a tree was the strangest call Freeman said she has ever responded to as an animal control officer.

“I hope he got down, I didn’t have any way of climbing the tree, and I couldn’t even see him up there,” she said.

Freeman, who has four dogs of her own, said the biggest challenge of being the city’s animal control officer was making pet owners understand the importance of the leash law.

“Not only does it protect the animals, but it also protects owners from lawsuits that can come after their dog bites someone,” she said.

Freeman spends her days helping animals in a different way now as a veterinary technician trainee at Natchez Veterinary Clinic.

“I feel like I can help save animals now from a different aspect by learning how to treat them with medicine,” she said.

Freeman said she misses her city job some, but she misses the people she met doing her job the most.

“It’s those people I have met every day that I miss, the wonderful people in this town,” she said.