Who would steal a goat, then have a change of heart because of a Facebook post?
That's the question hanging over a bizarre caper at a farm outside Maugerville, N.B., where owner Mindy Cardinal is still puzzling over the brief disappearance and unexpected return of her family's pygmy goat.
The six-month-old goat, named Walter, went missing from Cardinal's farm on Saturday. She and her family initially searched the nearby woods to see if "maybe a critter might've came in the night and took him," she told CTV Atlantic. But with the petting zoo goat still on the lam on Monday evening, Cardinal turned to Facebook for help.
"Someone has taken a part of our farm family," Cardinal wrote in a Facebook post, which has been shared more than 1,700 times. "This is an unacceptable behaviour, so if someone you know has had Walter arrive at their home we would appreciate you giving us a call." She added in the post that the goat is named after her father-in-law, and that the animal needs to be back in time to fill a spot on a Santa Claus parade float.
"If you have him just bring him back and put him back in the fence and it will be much appreciated," she said.
And that, it seems, is exactly what happened.
"Around 9 p.m. or so a vehicle had came and we heard a little commotion with the animals," Cardinal said. "We came outside and looked and Walter came back."
Cardinal called the animal's return a "miracle" in a follow-up to her original Facebook post. "Thank you to whoever brought him back… and make sure to come to the Santa Claus parade to see him and his brother Clifford this Saturday," she wrote.
The who, what and why of the goat's disappearance remain a mystery, but Cardinal is just happy to have it back.
"He's fine," she said. "He's with his friends and he's been eating and he's unharmed."
