A well-organized search party was organized in the Montreal suburb of Kirkland on Sunday to help Ryan Muscat find his lost dog.
“He’s been with me through everything,” she told Global News, fighting back tears outside Kirkland Arena. “She was there for me when my dad passed away.”
‘She’ is a 9-year-old Husky Labrador mix Pitah, who went missing Saturday morning in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
“She escaped through an open garage we’re thinking,” explained the mascot. “I just need to get her back home, get her to the vet, get her healthy. She’s probably very scared.”
With the temperature dipping to minus 20 degrees Celsius on Saturday, he was concerned for the animal’s safety, so he posted a notice on social media about the missing dog.
There was a flood of reactions to his notice.
“I got a message from someone in Australia asking me if I had found my dog Alberta, I have people in the UK,” he said.
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Search parties began to wind up on Saturday night and by Sunday morning neighbors estimate that hundreds of people were involved in the search, some from as far away as Laval.
Many people flocked to Kirkland Arena on Saturday to organize search parties.
“I feel really strongly about helping this person, because I would expect the same help if I needed it one day,” Jordan Schell said.
Carle Scully, another neighbor, agrees.
“A dog isn’t just a dog. It’s your family.
Even tracker and dog trainer Matthew King, owner of Chien & Drone, brought along a sniffer dog and a drone to help with the search.
“I have 3 phases that are find, feed and then fetch,” he explained.
Pita was last seen on Sunday morning in the vicinity of Kirkland Arena, about 6 kilometers from where she had gone missing. So the objective, he said was to try and keep her in that zone and not intimidate her.
“It’s in flight mode,” he reported. “It’s not even going to the owner.”
He is hoping at some point to trap the animal by luring it with food.
Now he, Muskat and the others can only wait.