There’s a community effort afoot in South Surrey’s Ocean Park neighbourhood to locate a senior dog missing since 8:30 p.m. April 1, and the response has warmed owner Sherri Storoshenko’s heart.
“The support’s been amazing,” Storoshenko said Monday, of the number of people who have been out looking for 16-year-old Sheba – who is nearly blind and quite deaf – or helping spread word of her plight.
“I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday walking around, handing out flyers, calling vets and bylaws. The fact that they just knew she was a senior dog in the neighbourhood was more than enough for them to go out and search.
“Throughout the weekend, everyone I stopped would say they were looking for her.”
But, “I’m just getting exhausted and defeated. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Sheba, a lab-pitbull mix who came into Storoshenko’s life at the age of eight weeks, wandered out of the yard while the family, who lives near 15A Avenue and 128 Street, was getting ready to go camping. Sheba and her son, 14-year-old Diablo, managed to wedge open the gate, Storoshenko said, but while Diablo chose to hop into the family vehicle, for some reason, Sheba ventured out.
It’s the first time Sheba has wandered off, Storoshenko said, and with no new sightings, “as the days go by, I’m getting quite worried.”
Diablo, she said, is “devastated.”
Al Maclellan of Petsearchers said Monday that he was recruited by the family on April 2, and the search so far has included scouring the nearby cliffs – including with a drone and bloodhounds – and neighbourhood for hours at a time.
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But with no new leads, “we’re kind of at a standstill,” Maclellan said.
Maclellan, a South Surrey resident himself, said he started his business after his own dog got lost during a storm. Back then, “there was nobody to help you,” he said.
He said he hasn’t given up on the search for Sheba, but “at a certain point, you have to wait for a break in the case.”
Storoshenko said she is feeling “pretty helpless,” but she’s also “not ready to give up.”
She’s hopeful people will continue to keep an eye out for Sheba – including checking their own yards and reviewing home-surveillance footage – and contact her at 778-869-7079 or Maclellan at 604-825-6913 if they see or find anything that could help bring her home.
Sheba is black with white paws, chest and face, and has a cyst on her left eyelid as well as a mass on her side. While her hearing is impaired, she responds to clapping and treats, Storoshenko said.
tholmes@peacearchnews.com
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