Apollo, a great dane

Apollo mission to find family's missing pooch
Monday, July 20, 2009, 11:00

WHEN Apollo the Doberman went missing, his frantic family went into overdrive. They hired pet detectives, spent nights on stake-outs, and got an entire community on the dog's trail.

Now, after 10 days living by his wits in the wild, the pooch is back home in Packmoor. Owners Karen and Paul Rose, and their seven-year-old son Bradley, are overjoyed.

The two-year-old dog went missing on July 4 in Chesterton, close to Apedale Country Park. Paul had taken him into work at nearby Ibstock Brick and was planning to go for a walk. But Apollo had other ideas after spotting a fox. He chased it and then vanished into the evening air.

Karen, aged 36, who teaches at Newcastle College, spent countless hours on the search. She said: "There was a sighting of him by the post office and another of him walking towards Crackley Bank. But that was it. I thought somebody had got him. I was a broken woman.

"I rang four councils – Newcastle, Stoke-on-Trent, Cheshire East and Cheshire West – to see if he'd been picked up. I put an advert in The Sentinel. Apollo is chipped and I contacted the chip company."

Then the Rose family turned to Herefordshire-based Animal Search UK for help. The company was founded by police officer turned pet detective Tom Watkins. It gets 30 reports of missing pets a day, as far afield as Scotland and Devon. People can upload pictures and descriptions on to a missing pets website, use a 24-hour helpline, and also order posters featuring their pets for publicity campaigns.The Rose family had pet insurance, so help was free. For others, it can cost £50 or more.

Tom said: "For Apollo, we did 350 leaflets and 25 posters. The posters had our free phone number on, so people could ring us if they saw him."

Karen blitzed Chesterton, fixing these laminated posters to railings and lamp-posts. She also sat in her car on stake-outs, with Bradley tagging along. She said: "I went up every dirt track and pushed leaflets through doors and spoke to people.

"I even mithered the milkman. His wife had a sighting of Apollo by a kebab house and the milkman went shooting up there, but couldn't find him."

When a stray dog later wandered up to the kebab place, staff sprang into action. Five of them came running out like the FBI and ripped the poster off to see if it was the same dog. They were brilliant," said Karen.
Unfortunately, it wasn't Apollo.


But on Monday last week, there was a positive sighting near a scrapyard, less than a mile from where he went missing. The man rang Animal Search, who alerted Karen. Despite the family dashing up there, and even using strips of ham to entice Apollo out, he proved elusive. But, the next evening, they struck gold when scrapyard staff spied the dishevelled Doberman and rang the helpline. Karen said: "We went up and did a foot search, with the rain belting down. Then we found Apollo."

The dog was thin, scared, with cuts, and had red puffy eyes from lack of sleep. He was whisked to a vet for a check-up and allowed home."We were elated. My life had stopped when he went missing.

"Day by day Apollo's now getting better. He's enjoying his pork chops and chicken breasts.

"We'd just like to thank everybody. The community spirit in Chesterton is fantastic.

"We also couldn't have found him without Animal Search UK."

Tom added: "I guess it was a fur cop."


Source:
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Apollo-mission-family-s-missing-pooch/article-1177942-detail/article.html