TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The owners of Franny the Nanny are celebrating after her return home Tuesday evening.
Lizzie Mead told KGUN 9 Franny was displaced in Three Points, Ariz. Apparently, someone put her with a herd out to pasture.
The herd owner counts every day and noticed an extra head Tuesday.
"I've checked her all over; her feet don't look like she walked on asphalt at all," Mead revealed. "Her hooves look identical to how they looked that day [she went missing].
Because of this, Mead has reason to believe someone did steal Franny.
If you know of a stolen or neglected animal, please call (520) 724-5900, ext. 4 to reach Pima County's Animal Protection Services Dispatchers.
ORIGINAL STORY 4:09 PM Monday, Jul 24
Lizzie Mead jokes that her pet goat, Franny the Nanny, was her “questionable life choice pandemic decision.”
Mead and her boyfriend, Chris Babbie, picked up Franny and Franny’s brother, Captain Kidd, in 2021 from a Tucson man with too many goats.
“He was giving them away on Facebook Marketplace,” Mead said. “The guy had nine goats and one was pregnant. He wasn’t allowed to have any more.”
An alternative to your traditional dog, cat or hamster, the hooved duo came home with Mead and Babbie and quickly became part of the family.
“They are so ridiculously cute,” Mead said. “They are very much like having dogs. Ours are leash-trained. We walk them in the neighborhood. Everybody recognizes them.”
The intense bond is what has made the last week so incredibly difficult for the couple. On Tuesday, July 18, Franny disappeared while chewing on weeds in the front yard of Mead and Babbie’s home near North Fourth Avenue and East Speedway.
Franny was gone, her collar was caught on the fence. Mead said they had just ordered microchips for their goats, but they hadn’t come in yet.
Mead said they don’t know if Franny just escaped or was taken.
“(The goats) have gotten into the house before,” Mead said. “They circumvented a gate and got into the dog door. When we got home from work, they were sitting on the couch with the dog.
"We have since Alcatraz'd the yard with several fences."
If she was taken, Mead worries that her abductors will be unfamiliar with how to take care of her.
“Goats will eat anything,” she said. “If somebody found her and threw her in the backyard, and there are oleanders back there, it will kill her.”
Mead and Babbie have posted about Franny on Facebook and have put posters up throughout their neighborhood.
Mead said Franny, a Nigerian dwarf mix, has blue eyes, which may make her easier to identify. She is also loud.
“When she wants her dinner, she yells,” Mead said. “It’s why I have been driving the neighborhood listening for her.”
Mead and Babbie have already received a number of leads, none of which have panned out.
"I drove to Bilby and Park because someone said a man was walking a goat down there," Mead said. "I found the guy at Circle K. He had a goat that wasn't ours and was calling it his dog.
"I said, 'I feel you there. Franny is like my dog, too.' "
Anyone with information on Franny, can call 1-520-237-9966 or 1-520-780-2174.
