Three months after Molly the Clydesdale horse mysteriously went missing from its pen on a farm in Evansburg, Alta., near Edmonton, the animal just as mysteriously reappeared at a neighbour’s property on Christmas Eve.
“We were on our way to Calgary to see my daughter for Christmas and a neighbour phoned and she was bawling her eyes out and she said, ‘You got to get back -- there's something in my yard you need to see,’” Molly’s owner, Cindy Thomas, told CTV Edmonton. “I didn’t think I would see her again.”
Where the six-year-old horse has been since going missing in September, however, remains a mystery.
“Maybe someone saw her and fell in love with her,” Thomas said. “She’s in good shape. Somebody had her, I’m pretty sure… She’s been brushed. She's been groomed. She’s got halter marks on her head from where maybe the halter was a little bit small that they had.”
Initially, Thomas feared that Molly was stolen to be sold for meat. Thomas’ subsequent Facebook posts about the missing animal were shared thousands of times and a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a cash reward generated more than $1,200 in donations before those funds were returned six weeks ago, when Thomas resigned herself to Molly being gone for good.
“If only she knew how many people were looking for her and how many people wanted her to come home,” Thomas said.
The reunion between horse and owner was equal parts tearful and joyful for Thomas. She calls Molly’s Christmas Eve return the “best gift ever.”
“I think she almost wants a break from me already,” Thomas said of her post-reunion horse doting. “She’s like, ‘You just need to give me a little bit of personal space.’”
