Sweet Zoey Lost Options

[kab4176]

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Last Saturday, 12/1, my husband and I were at Mark Twain Lake where we have some property. Two of our dogs Ollie and Zoey went out that morning with my husband to relieve themselves. I came out about five minutes later to feed them. We have an electric fence, but we had not yet put on their collars. We were shocked that they had already wondered into the woods before I even feed them (this is why we put in an electric fence last year). I admit we have been lax about the collars as they hate having them on and I knew they loved the woods and stupidly never thought this could happen. We just always "knew" they would return. My husband said he had a bad feeling when several hours later they still had not returned. Four hours later Ollie came back but was without Zoey. We started searching at that point. This is an RV subdivision however this time of year not many weekenders like us come up. The area is sparse with full-time residents, lots of woods and farm property.

I walked back to one house that is not too far thru the woods from our place and strangely enough one of their 7 dogs never came home Friday night. I left my phone with several people but we had to leave Sunday late afternoon to come home. I took off work Tuesday and went back up with one of my other dogs Bodie and we searched the woods and creek bottom for hours to no avail. I called all the nearby shelters, although there are none in the immediate area. She is chipped. I'm driving up tomorrow morning (Sat) with dozens of signs I made that I am going to post everywhere within 50 mile radius as she could be anywhere at this point.

We are just sick. Feel a tremendous amount of guilt - we let her down. And all the what if's...what if we had just put her shock collar on, what if we had her regular collar on, what if we had called for the dogs as soon as they went missing as they couldn't have been far because my husband had just seen them going potty near the woods five minutes before. We have been so depressed.

Zoey is a sweet sweet girl. She was brought to work at 6 weeks old by a friend of mine who found her sitting on the curb of a busy street in several inches of snow and the cold in East St. Louis. She was lethargic but healthy and I took her home with me. Everyone absolutely loves Zoey. She is a gentle loving dog who loves people. She is extremely laid back, in fact, we joke a lot about how lazy she is - she is a lounger for sure. We miss her and this has been gut wrenching - especially the not knowing part. Where is she? What happened to her that she didn't/couldn't come back? Is she hurt? Did she get shot by a farmer? Is she cold? Is she hungry? We are so depressed.

I can't think of anything else to do after posting signs tomorrow. We are so very sad. It will be a week tomorrow. Where is our sweet baby girl? We want her back so badly.

[moon_beam]

Hi, kab, please permit me to offer you my sincerest condolences in the missing of your precious Zoey. Having experiened lost companions during my lifetime I do so understand how frantic and anxious you are to find her. A couple of other suggestions - - if you have not already - - is to place her on a Lost Pet internet database. And if she's chipped, is her chip registered with a national pet finder database? Have you contacted the local veterinary hospitals / clinics as well - - sending pictures with a description of her and her chip ID number? You may also want to place an advertisement in the local newspapers in the "Lost Pet" classifieds. Hopefully with all the contacts and media your precious Zoey will find her way back home to you.

You may also want to contact the local police just in case there may be someone deliberately abducting companion animals and / or wildlife in the vicinity. They may have a report of other missing companions already in progress.

Kab, I DO understand how broken hearted you are feeling. Please know you and your precious Zoey are in my thoughts and prayers, and please let us know how things are going.

Peace and blessings,
moon_beam