Fears grow for teenager's support dog missing in Kettering area

The owners of a support dog last seen in Kettering after going missing from Barton Seagrave have asked for help to find their beloved family pet.

The Smith family are desperate to find Darcy, a black five-year-old female poodle-bichon cross, that belongs to son Dylan who has Down’s syndrome.

Darcy bolted from a dog sitter’s house on July 20, evading capture, followed by sightings outside her home in Cranford Road and at the family’s previous Brambleside address.

Now the family believe the lack of any further witnesses or evidence could be because she has been picked up and stolen, leaving 17-year-old Dylan confused.

Karen Smith said: “We’re all totally devastated. We’ve lost a family member. She’s gorgeous – a lovely little gentle dog and usually really good off the lead, but this wasn’t the usual circumstances.

“Dylan is very distressed. He just doesn’t understand why she doesn’t want to be with us anymore. He’s used to her being around.”

Darcy, who has a distinctive malformation of skin at her throat, slipped away from the dog sitter who tried to call her back but it is thought she was scared and ran.

She was next seen outside her home in Cranford Road, Barton Seagrave, but after being ‘spooked’ by builders she travelled five miles across Kettering to where she had previously lived in Longfellow Drive. The last confirmed sighting of Darcy was in a Cleveland Avenue back garden in the pouring rain on July 22.

She had been sitting on a lawn but, by the time the resident had got a towel, Darcy had escaped through a hole in the fence.

With help from lost and stolen pet social media sites – Dog Squad and Beauty’s Legacy – search parties have been scouring woods and verges using thermal imaging cameras and looking down drains with specialist equipment. Volunteers have distributed thousands of leaflets to nearby homes.

Karen said: “Darcy kept on running and was seen all over Kettering. She went back to Longfellow spinney and since then there’s been nothing. We have done some extensive searches but we don’t know where she is. It’s a needle in a haystack – the undergrowth is just so dense at the moment. If she is deceased we need to know. We need closure.

"It’s so bizarre that nobody has seen her. People are thinking that she might have been taken. She might have been picked up and taken. She’s been spayed so she’s not any use for breeding. We just want her back.”

Anyone who does see Darcy has been asked not to approach her because she will be ‘terrified’.

Lisa Dean, founder of charity Beauty’s Legacy that reunites lost and stolen pets, said: “My gut feeling is that she has been picked up and kept. Volunteers have combed the roads for a body.

"I would ask anyone with the slightest piece of information, however small, to come forward.”

Meanwhile the Smith family have put up a ‘substantial’ reward for information leading to Darcy’s recovery.

Contact https://www.facebook.com/groups/3207525412856889 with any information or call Lisa on 07866 026343 or Dog Squad on 07960 132901