Missing: A small brown and grey female Yorkshire terrier. She is 10 years old.

She was last seen on the Cork-Kinsale road, on the Cork side of Riverstick on Saturday May 1st.

Somebody may have picked her up as the road was very busy over the bank holiday weekend. Many people visited Kinsale for the Rugby 7s and may have seen her.

If you have any information please call 0863160974 or email deniseomeara08@hotmail.com

Lost Dog in Cork Website or the Lost Dog in Cork Facebook group for more information.

The cool thing is we got Mac back as a combined result of pretty much everything we’ve been doing. We worked hard, and a lot of other people worked even harder on our behalf, but the combined effort is what led to finding him.

First up we got the word out on twitter via my account (@emmet), people really responded to this and it created a huge awareness. A couple of hundred people retweeted info on Mac, and really helped spread the word he was missing. As a result of that activity, Sian from whatswhat.ie contacted me. We’d never been in touch before, but John had mentioned her before in some context or other. So she put me in touch with her business partner from what’s what , Barbara

I know this is getting convoluted, but Barbara put me in touch with the legendary Lesley. Lesley runs Bray Directory and basically seems to have friends in both high and low places. She’s kept us going through a lot of the crappier times in the last week. Barbara and Lesley basically went around talking to people and harassing them and raising awareness. Impressive stuff.

So it seems that whoever took the dog felt enough pressure on them from people on all sides of the law, that they decided to let Mac go last Friday. Someone spotted him in Fassroe where he was abandoned by his abductees. From here, Mac made his way to Enniskerry, and to be honest I’m shocked he had the road sense to make it that far. He then basically followed this girl home, and they took him in on the weekend.

I spent my weekend plastering bray with flyers, and basically the girl’s father saw one of these. He checked out the website (site developed in record time by the legendary Niall Flynn), and confirmed from the photos it was Mac they had. The father got in touch with me, and then my wife picked up Mac this evening.

At first Mac was really quiet and timid, but he was physically really well. He’s lost a lot of weight, but hasn’t been maltreated. Despite his initial reticence, when he got home he went nuts, running around like a mad thing, really, really happy.

So basically that’s the direct path to how he was found, but lots of other people helped too. We had senior members of the Gardai taking a close personal interest, we had private detectives making enquires free of charge, we had some media coverage, not to mention twitter, facebook, blogs etc. and we even had a few really decent members of the traveling community working for us.

To be honest I really didn’t think we’d get mac back, but I thought if I threw everything at it, it mightn’t become a defining moment in the lives of my children. I am really blown away by the help and support we’ve got from everyone, without it he wouldn’t be here now. One bath later, my living room smells like a smelly wet dog, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks.

Emmet.

Anyway, I spoke to someone yesterday who might have seen a dog matching Mac’s description near Kilbride Lane in Bray. This road runs between Killarney Road and Herbert Road. The group she described didn’t sound unlike the teenagers and dogs I mentioned previously. I know it’s all a bit tenuous, but please keep your eyes open if you’re in the area. Thanks.

First up I headed to the Wicklow ISPCA pound in Rathdrum. There’s a dog warden and pound and also a dog sanctuary, they seem oddly connected, yet separate. It almost seemed one was there to save dogs from the other. It was fairly heart breaking all in all, lots of really nice dogs with very uncertain futures. If anyone reading this is thinking about getting a dog, I’d strongly urge you to consider rescuing a pound dog.
On a side note, Mac was originally a rescue dog, we got him when he was about 10 months old through Dogs in Distress. It’s a great organisation, and everyone involved in it seems really clued in to finding the right dog for the right person/family. I know it’s really exciting to get a puppy, but there’s a lot to be said for getting a slightly older (usually) trained dog.

So after visiting the pound, I headed home to sort new flyers out, but my printer (useless HP photosmart) died, so I had to peg it over to Dun Laoghaire. Star Office supplies upstairs in the shopping centre sorted me out. They printed out the flyers at a reduced rate and laminated a bunch of them for free. Really nice of them.

After that, I basically trudged around Bray going into every shop/cafe/headshop/charity shop etc and telling the manager and anyone else listening about Mac. A lot of places agreed to stick up posters, even places that don’t usually take in that kinda stuff. I got around 40 shops to put something up, which isn’t bad. It took a couple of hours, but was well worth it, wish I’d done it sooner.

When I came back up from Bray, we got fairly excited when someone mailed us a pic of a dog that had been found in Meath that looked a lot like Mac. I knew it wasn’t him, but I still had to pull up photos and compare markings. Not our dog unfortunately. Bizarrely I discovered I have a few hundred photos of Mac’s left side, but less than 10 of his right. Weird, don’t see why it doesn’t average out. If you were thinking about getting a dog though, that Meath one certainly sounds nice.

I wrapped up the evening by following up calls with a few people who are helping out on the ground and chasing up on mails etc.
Not a bad day all in all.

What has got us out of that slump is the amazing response we’ve had. People have been looking out for Mac, they’ve put up posters, made calls, tweeted, facebooked, they’ve even wandered around dodgy areas in Bray talking to some fairly sketchy characters. A lot of people I’ve approached in Bray recently have already heard about Mac and are already keeping an eye out for him. I’ve come across posters in places that I didn’t put them. People are helping out in many other ways too.

So I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks to everyone who’s been involved and who’s looking out for Mac. On Monday, I didn’t think I’d see my dog alive again, but today, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it. We’ll see how things pan out over the next few days, but either way, it’s nice to have your faith in people returned.

My dog Mac was stolen from our family home in Bray on the 26th of April 2010. He is a 2 year old Jack Russell terrier. He is tan and white, fairly small and has a slightly longer tail than most Jack Russell Terriers. He is chipped and neutered and was wearing a blue bandanna collar with a name tag (though I doubt he still has that on).

We are devastated, he is completely a part of the family, and pretty much acted as the third child in the house.

He has a fantastic nature, is a bright and alert dog and pretty much everyone just falls in love with him.

Since we put the word out that he was taken, people have been really fantastic, be they friends, neighbors or even complete strangers, everyone has done what they can to help. Lots of people have posted about it on twitter, facebook,blogs and various lost and found sites. Many people have been in touch, looking for updates, other photos, posters and more information, so to help with that, I thought it would be worth setting up this site.

Hopefully I’ll have good news soon, either way, I’ll update when I can.

Thanks everyone for all the help and support.

Emmet