ShiShi, pitbull

Service dog of paralyzed Milwaukee boy missing, possibly stolen
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
May 24, 2014

The family of a paralyzed Milwaukee boy who was featured in a 2013 documentary on texting and driving by famed filmmaker Werner Herzog is frantically searching for the boy's service dog, which disappeared from their home and is presumed to have been stolen.

The dog, named Shi Shi, is a blue nose pit bull owned by the family ofXzavier Davis, 9, who was left paralyzed at the age of 5 when he was struck by a texting driver while crossing the street with his sister.

Xzavier Davis, 9, who was left paralyzed at the age of 5 when he was struck by a texting driver, is pictured with his dog Shi Shi.

Xzavier's accident is one of the heartbreaking stories Herzog featured in the documentary, "From One Second to the Next," which went viral on social media last year. The 35-minute documentary on YouTube has been watched close to 3 million times.

"Anyone who knows us, and knows this family, knows exactly how important this dog is to our family," Valetta Bradford, Xzavier's mother and the dog's trainer, said Saturday.

The dog, which Xzavier has had for a little more than a year, has been both a companion and an assistant for the boy, alerting family members if his breathing equipment falters and helping him with opening doors and other jobs. Shi Shi was given to the family by friends when she was six weeks old.

The dog went missing on Tuesday, when Xzavier's sister left her on the porch to go into her kennel after a walk. Bradford went out on the porch five minutes later and Shi Shi was gone, she said.

The family has gone door-to-door in a two-mile radius, made appeals on social media and is planning to post signs with the dog's picture, Bradford said.

Shi Shi's disappearance has hit Xzavier hard, and he's constantly asking where the dog might be and wanting to do more to find her, his mother said.

The loss of the dog appears to be a double blow to the family: Someone also stole Xzavier's Xbox 360 video game system in May while the family was in New York to appear on the Katie Couric show to discuss texting and driving, Bradford said.

After WTMJ-TV Channel 4 reported the missing dog and game system, a viewer on the WTMJ website offered to give Xzavier her Xbox and others have said they would provide new dogs, but Xzavier will have none of it, his mother said.

Bradford said the boy has just one response to the offers: "It won't be Shi Shi."

Source: http://linkis.com/www.jsonline.com/new/A3H9E