Returned from being gone all day yesterday to find our Jack Russel terrier mix dog missing. We have a securely fenced in yard and a dog door so the dogs can be home alone.
Neighbor reported another local person was shooting off "commercial grade" fireworks.
I am surmising that "Cricket" jumped the fence and ran in terror.(All gates were closed and latched upon inspection)

I am going to file a police complaint for this S.O.B. with the fireworks tomorrow.

We spent the day driving around the entire surrounding area, posting signs at local establishments and door to door all around the surrounding neighborhoods. Almost everyone we talked to had seen this display, and those dog-owning neighbors close to us said their dogs were going ape-s**t for the >half hour show, too.

The disrespect this guy shows for his neighbors is astounding. When I talked to him about it today, he admitted lighting off the fireworks, and "apologized" for what happened to our dog, but I got the sense that he wasn't really remorseful.

We do not have a local department, have to rely on the State Police, but I will call them tomorrow and complain officially.

I ran ads in 2 of the 4 local papers as I was able to do them online. I'll do the other two tomorrow. We notified all the shelters and veterinarians in the area as well the humane league in this and the neighboring county.

Anyone have any ideas as to what else we can do?
My wife and kids are dying over this andI ain't feeling so great about it either. One look at the picture will explain....... (her eyes look funny because I had to photoshop out the "green eye" effect from the flash in the original)

 

Hope you find the dog. Try craigslist.org they have a lost and found section. My son used it when his dogs ran off. A lady saw the ad and the dogs the next day and made a phone call telling us where they were. Again, best of luck.

 

I don't really know what else to suggest...I just hope you get your pup back!!! I'll have a good thought for his safe return!!!

 

kinda late now but is your dog chipped? We have all of our dogs chipped and I have found the owners of 3 dogs because they were chipped.

 

my dog,cats and horses are chipped. great investment
I pray you get your dog back. jrt's are known for wandering and coming home days later.

 

The doggie is looking at meh! Lulz, Anyways, Sorry to hear that...I'd be mad if i came home and found my dog missing.

 

Sorry to hear about Cricket being scared off.
JRT's can get pretty excitable but I think you're doing everything right and hopefully She'll calm down, get hungry cold or tired and find her way back.

The only other thing I might suggest is taking your other dog for a walkabout in the hopes that their presence might encourage her to come out of hiding.
Maybe She'll stumble across your scent and be able to follow you home.
It sounds like you're in a pretty rural location so this might be unreasonable, but it's just an idea.

My thoughts and prayers that you are reunited soon.


-Jim

 

My firend who has some JRTs said you may want to put some used socks in random areas like a bread crumb trail. The second dog idea was one of his suggestions as well.
He said once they are out they like to follow instinct and "search and hunt" so Cricket may just be having some fun not realizing the heartbreak left behind.

 

I hope your pup comes home, good luck

 

Sorry to hear about your dog, but why did you leave it out when you were gone? When I leave the dogs go inside.

In my state fireworks are legal and sold all year around. Regardless when I leave I secure my dogs because I have pure breeds and don't want them ending up in some puppy mill or something. I know that you thought that the dog was in a "secure" environment, but evidentaly it got out. Learn from your experience when you get your dog back.

 

Good luck on finding you dog...is it possible it went under the a house yours or the neighbors...would be very scared and not come out for a bit. Mine freak out as well

Scott

 

Well, the story doesn't have a happy ending.
After searching all day yesterday by driving and stopping and getting out and calling, walking our other dog through neighboring areas, and going door to door in others, we found her dead on the road less than 1/4 mile from home. I believe she was on her way back when she got hit and killed by a car. The only tiny consolation was that she died instantly, judging by the damage.
I want to thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. I believe we did everything reasonable in our power to get her back, just as we did everything reasonable to keep her safe in the first place.
The fence around our property is solid wood, 6' high along one edge of the property and 4' high, 3 rail fence around the remainder. The rail fence is convered in 2" x 4" Red Line wire fence that extends all the way to the ground. All gates use 100% reliable closers and latches (have never had to manually close a gate in 5 years, except when it was propped open for passage of vehicles). I even placed a 6" or so layer of golf ball to baseball size rock around the entire fence to prevent digging under.
We believe that it is less stressful, healthier in general, and of course, less costly to leave our dogs at home when they cannot travel with us than it is to kennel them. When we are gone for more than 2 nights, we have a sitter come and feed, water, and walk them so they can have human interaction. We have left them home alone hundreds and hundreds of times when we go to work or take day trips without incident. They prefer to remain in the house most of the time unless being outside to play with us or to relieve themselves.
No one should have to prepare for the eventuality that a commercial-grade, county-fair style fireworks display might be held 300 yards from their house at the edge of a small village, without any advance notice and not within 5 miles of the nearest park, stadium, or other venue where fireworks displays of this magnitude might be expected. 4th of July and New Years eve we expect some noise from fireworks and possibly gunfire or carbide cannons, etc., and our dogs are with us or we with them on those occaisions. But in the middle of November? Come on.
So, although I can appreciate your position Rangerfan, I cannot be convinced that we did not leave our animals secured.
The logic you use would also dictate that livestock owners should lock all their animals in the barn if they wanted to leave the farm for a few hours. Not at all practical, nor should it be necessary.
It might be argued that we did not behave responsibly due to the fact that one of our dogs got out. But I never would have predicted that an 18" high dog could get over a 4' high fence; especially after never seeing one iota of evidence that she was inclined or able to do so.
I suppose that when a coyote gets into the horse pen and the horse jumps the fence (or crashes through it) in terror, it was due to poor security on behalf of the owner.
So, I will sleep well knowing that we did in fact take every reasonable precaution to ensure the welfare of our pets, as well as do everything possible to find her when she got out. But just as it was not feasible to search for her for 36 hours without sleep or food or tending to other tasks that needed to be done (like going to work), it is not feasible to build a 10 foot high solid fence or lock the dogs in the house whenever we left for even a short period of time.
I am certainly not in the frame of mine to enter into further debate about how well we care for our pets and will not do so further, so I will close with a repeated "Thank You" to all of my FTE "brothers and sisters" that took the time to offer suggestions and good wishes.

In closing I'll repeat a quote that I have always been fond of and one of my fellow FTE'ers (can't remember who, though) uses in his signature:

"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go
where they went."

Will Rogers, 1897-1935

 

Sorry to hear about Cricket... That's really unfortunate

 

Sorry for the lose of you pet. Its too bad the cops often wont even respond to complaints about fireworks. I have the same kind of neighbor and he loves the big rockets.They scare my dog . Next time I plan to call the fire department because they have to come out and enforse the fire safety laws when the cops wont..

 

ckal704, being an animal lover, I hope you find your dog safe.

I'd be searching from hell to high water.

No ifs' ands' or buts'.

Get some friends, etc. to help in a search.

Again, I hope you find the dog.