Daisy, the blind goat missing from Alberta animal sanctuary, found safe

A blind baby goat named Daisy, abducted from an animal sanctuary south of Edmonton, has been returned to her rescuers.

The Farm Animal Rescue and Rehoming Movement near Wetaskiwin had offered a $10,000, no-questions-asked reward for the return of the animal.

On Wednesday night, after eight days of searching, she reappeared less than a kilometre from home, "completely unharmed and no worse for wear."

'She's home' 

The group's founder, Melissa Foley, said Daisy had been quickly reunited with her best buddy, a blind sheep named Merlin, that had been distressed since the seven-month-old goat vanished.

"I can't even explain the relief. I just wanted to spend time with her," Foley told CBC News Thursday.

"I didn't even know what to do first. We are so happy to know she's safe and that she's home."

• Where's Daisy? $10K reward for blind goat stolen from central Alberta sanctuary

Daisy ended up at the sanctuary after her eyes and tongue were eaten by crows shortly after she was born.

She disappeared Sunday night from the rescue group's property about 10 minutes outside of town. Since then, members of the group had been searching the rural area, knocking on doors, and pleading online for help finding her.

The scale of the search was immense. Thousands of volunteers assisted in the search, with one man even offering to use his small airplane to scan the surrounding farmland. 

A telepath also offered her services. 

"We were in touch with an animal communicator — somebody who was saying she could talk with Daisy, or whatever — so we were following up on that," Foley said in a Facebook post Wednesday night.

"She said [Daisy] was a few kilometres down the road from us in a field. So while we were doing that, our neighbour called us and said she found Daisy just 500 metres from where we actually were looking."

'Pay it forward'

Foley has no idea how Daisy ended up near the rescue, but suspects "it was probably just a couple of punks thinking that it was just going to be a really funny thing to do, maybe not realizing at the time that they were taking an animal like Daisy with very special needs."

She believes her efforts of reaching out to students at the local schools, telling them about Daisy, had an impact.

Foley said Daisy seems just fine.

"Whoever had her was taking care of her," she said.

Less than an hour after Daisy's return, the group had received more than 500 messages of congratulations on its Facebook page. Foley said she's not surprised at the huge outpouring of support her group has received online and in person.

"Any time we've ever needed our community for anything, they've been there," she said.

The neighbour who rescued Daisy has refused the $10,000 reward, but Foley said will find another way to contribute to the community.

"It's going to be something good and we're going to be paying it forward but we're not exactly sure where we are with that, because we've been spending so much time with Daisy."