I don't want to make this too long, but my son who is 38, took a position that required traveling. Due to some financial problems and divorce I agreed to let him stay at our home as long as he worked and payed his bills. With him came his pet, who is 11 years old. My son does have some emotional issues, like eating disorder and compulsive spending, but his dog is his "best friend and companion" The dog slept with him and he would feed him from the table and off his fork. I stopped that as I could not tolerate the dog at the table. We live in a very rural area with a couple of acres surrounding us. My son has lived in an apt for 10 years, so the dog has been inside most of his life. After staying with us the dog loved to go outside and do his business and just "smell the roses" so to speak.We would walk him on a leash until he got familiar with his surroundings. It has been 6 months and the dog had his little territory, we would still keep an eye on him. Tuesday, we let him out, and after about 5 minutes I went to look for him and he was gone! My husband and I immediately went all around the perimeter, going out into the woods as far as we could, it was dark. We spent 3 hours looking, and after midnight stopped. The next morning at 6, my husband put on his hiking gear and took off through the woods, the temperature has been hot and after 6 hours returned with no luck. He was exhausted. He rested for a couple of hours and went out another direction for 4 more hours. At this point we made some flyers and put them out. I called the Pound and the closest Vets office in case someone had found him. To no avail. His dog had some health issues, couldn't see or hear well. I am just devastated! I have cried until I made myself sick. My son will be back in town on Monday and I just don't know how he will take this. I know he will never forgive me, and I can live with that, but because of his emotional situation, I am more afraid of what he will do. This dog was his baby!! We have not found the dog, so my son will never have any closure. I am at wits end, anybody out there have any suggestions on how to handle this?Thanking any answers in advance.

I hope you find him! That is so sad. I kinda got bogged down in the long paragraph-did you call the neighbors and see if they found the dog? Hopefully, eventually the dog will find his way home.

I think you should post on Craigslist.com in the city nearest you, in both the lost and found and the pets sections. You can post a picture of the dog if you have one.

I've been helping my neighbor look for her dog and I posted on craigslist and several people emailed me tons of info on looking for her. It was about shelters and organizations in this area, so it wouldn't be any use to you...but probably someone in your area would send you info on the shelters and stuff there, if you post on craigslist in your area.

These don't seem to be just for my area, maybe they'll help: http://dogdetective.com/ http://www.fidofinder.com/

Also, you might need to go down to the pound and look in person...sometimes they aren't too good with the description of the dogs and might not realize they had the one you were looking for.

One other thing, if your house has a crawlspace underneath it and there's any access to it that the dog would fit through, he might be in there, trying to stay cool but unable to find his way out.

And don't let your husband make himself sick searching for the dog...as cruel as it sounds, there are lots of dogs in the world and your son would undoubtedly choose his dad over his dog. 10 hours hiking around in the heat sounds really dangerous, especially for someone who's old enough to have a 38 year old son (just thinking of my parents here and how they'd do out in the heat for that long).

Anyhow, I hope you find him.

I'm so sorry this happened, I really hope that he comes back on his own or that you find him.

I'd also suggest going to any and all pounds or shelters in person also. Three different people can describe one dog three different ways.

The best of luck to you with the dog and your son!

My neighbor's dog went missing one day after he took off chasing a deer. She called the local vets, checked all the shelters in person, told the neighbors, put up posters, then because school was in session and only a block from her house took a poster to the school office and talked to the office staff, who actually put all the kids on "look out" for the dog. The last thing she did was to call the state police barracks. She thought they might see him or worst case find his body while patrolling. Almost two weeks later the state police called and gave her a phone # of a woman who called their station and reported a dog she found in her yard. Sure enough, there was her dog safe and sound!
So, I think you should tell everyone you can think of, and maybe he will be found. Good luck our thoughts are with you

. . . was the dog "pining" for your son . . . stories like the "Incredible Journey" are NOT uncommon . . . could be he is trying to find his way back to your son's previous home . . . I had a cat that traveled back to our previous residence looking for us when we went on vacation and had only been in our new home for a short time . . . we found her when we got back (our cat sitter was of course devastated because she knew she wasn't to let the cat out) . . . and the cat gave us proper you know what when we went back to find her after several weeks absence . . . all worked out in the end . . . and I hope you too find your missing family member . . . but I would try to check areas close to the other residence as well . . . good luck . . .

Oh I am soooo sorry!!! I really hope you find him.

I would phone your local radio station - depending on how big of a community you live in and ask them to mention it. Many people do this in my home town and if a dog is along a street or highway often they get found by someone calling it in.

I would also talk to your neighboors. My dog decided to lead away her puppies one year - she'd had enough time to go. Well my neighboor apparantly didnt know we had this dog and thought someone had just dropped them off in the country. She decided she didnt want them around her place so she packed them up in her truck and drove them 15 miles away and dropped them off. My dad and I go looking for them once we realize they're missing - less than an hour and she is just getting home. We went to the area she described and found our dog but no puppies! Tried to speak to one of the farm hands in the area but he didnt speak English and my dad's Ukrainian is ok but rusty. We looked for hours and no puppies. My neighboor felt so bad the next day that she went looking and phoning - finally found the puppies but one was still missing. We never did find him.

Sorry that was long winded - my point is that people do crazy things sometimes.

Please let us know how this turns out! I hope you find him.