By Wendy Edwards
Published: May 25, 2011
When Suzan Roberts told the community her beloved dog went missing, hundreds of people attempted to help find him. Roberts, beset by the grief of having lost the Katan/Cavalier King Charles mix she calls Marty, was overwhelmed by the generosity of those living in and around Fluvanna.
Marty has been found and the owner is grateful to a community that came together in many ways to look for the lost dog.
“It was just amazing when I would talk to people,” says Marty’s owner. “One gentleman I was talking to sent [word of the missing dog] on his iPhone right then and there.”
Marty went missing on a Sunday afternoon.
“I was out playing with him and my older dog and he slipped down in the woods, which is nothing unusual,” Roberts says. “I came around to help my dad with something,” then when she looked around for Marty, “he was gone. He may have had a seizure (the dog is diagnosed with Epilepsy) or may have gotten unfocused and I think he just got totally confused and he bolted.”
Roberts, her husband, Gary, and father, Roger Cyr, spent hours searching to no avail, looking in the woods, driving up and down the driveway, hollering for the dog who “usually comes running when he hears us.”
Together, the family checked along Route 53 near the Lake campground, where they were told a lady tried to catch [the dog], “but he bolted back into the woods. She said he was scared.”
By five in the morning Monday, Roberts was in front of her computer making fliers about her lost dog. “By six, I was at the Lake campground posting fliers.” Within a few hours, everyone in the vicinity of Routes 53 and 618 could see Marty’s picture and learn about his plight.
“It was totally amazing how the community came together to support this little guy,” Roberts says. “My husband gave a flier to one of his coworkers whose child saw the $200 reward, said ‘Dad, is that for real?’ And then out the door he went!’”
Pizza delivery drivers and Fluvanna school bus drivers joined Marty’s neighborhood friends and family in the search by keeping fliers on hand and helped to spread the news that he was missing. Even the Lake Monticello gatekeepers did what they could. “Every day we went to the Lake, they let us in.”
Roberts’ brother, Damon Cyr of Charlottesville, could not join in the search, but that did not prevent him from contributing to Marty’s rescue.
“He hired an online service called LostMyDoggie.com and they flooded the area with over 1,200 phone calls and sent out notices to 100 veterinarians and shelters in the area,” Roberts says.
By Tuesday, news of Marty’s disappearance was all over Facebook and Twitter. “And my phone started ringing!” People that had seen Marty were calling in, helping Roberts piece-together his trail.
Then came call she was waiting for. “Marty was found at a barn at Ash Lawn, a little over eight miles from our house.”
Apparently, the tired dog approached a caretaker who was thoughtful enough to share a little bit of his lunch. “I do not know how he managed to catch [the dog] but he did and he took him home,” Roberts says. “He even let Marty sleep with him.”
Thankfully, an associate that works in the Ash Lawn-Highland gift shop had seen one of Roberts’ fliers. “So, they found our number and called the house and spoke with my Dad.” Thirty minutes later, Marty was identified and brought home.
Because the dog experienced a number of seizures while he was away, Roberts and her family saw to his medical treatment first and foremost. They will be keeping an even closer eye on him from now on.
“We are looking into a GPS tracking collar,” she says.
As for everyone who helped share pictures of Marty and did their best to get him home, she says: “Thank you all for what you did. For the ones that helped hand out flyers, the online postings, Facebook … everything that you did made the difference in saving this little guy’s life and bringing him back home. The emotions are still running wild with me; I am so happy. You cannot see me, but right now I have tears of joy in my eyes.”
Source: http://www.mydailyprogress.com/ruralvirginian/index.php/news/article/dog_found_thanks_to_communitys_help/40489/
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