Kelly Olsen of Duncan just wants to her beloved puppy Chibs to come back home.
The six-month-old purebred Rottweiler was last seen Jan. 9 in Olsen’s backyard, and since that time the community has come together in a big way to find Chibs, so far without any luck.
“This is such a community effort. We’re talking thousands of people are looking for that dog,” Olsen said, estimating at least 9,000 flyers have been handed out and mailed out at this point. “I have phone calls on a daily basis. Not only people volunteering to go look for the dog but just people wishing me well…I’ve had other pet owners that have lost their pets phoning me up and saying ‘hey, this is what we went through, hang in there and don’t give up.’”
Olsen, who lives off of Lakes Road just before Trillium Terrace, said the weather was foggy the morning of Jan 9. She and her daughter were riding horses in their indoor riding arena for a short time when they went to check on their three dogs Jax, Gemma and the youngster, Chibs, around 10:30 a.m.
“We started calling the pup right away, probably 10 or 15 minutes from when we saddled and went to the indoors and he just didn’t come back,” said Olsen. She believes Chibs may have been searching for rabbits and then lost his bearings in the fog and wandered off of their 35-acre farm along Somenos Lake.
“We’re talking farm dog, he had never been off the property,” Olsen said. “He was familiar with our farm, outside of that area he was not.”
So many people have been looking with no leads that Olsen is now leaning towards the possibility somebody abducted Chibs.
“It’s beginning to look that way, because we haven’t had any sightings,” she said.
Olsen says she wishes she could put out an amber alert for him.
“He’s absolutely amazing. He’s a little bit on the timid side, but he’s loving…laid-back and really sweet — not hard for somebody to fall in love with him if they did find him,” Olsen said of Chibs, who is black and tan with no tail.
Last Saturday, Jan. 23 a search party including around 50 people from all over the island looked for Chibs.
Although the search was unsuccessful, nobody is giving up. Information from FLED (Find Lost and Escaped Dogs) and from pet owners who’ve lost a pet is that dogs generally stay within 3 to 5 kilometres of home if they get lost.
“He is family, that’s the thing of it right,” Olsen said, adding that after losing her mom several years ago Chibs filled a really big gap in her life. “We’re not whole right now,” she added of her family.
Olsen is offering a “very generous” reward for the return of Chibs, but said that people have been helping out from the kindness of their hearts, rather than for the hope of money.
Around one week ago Olsen and her husband Ken rescued one of Chibs’ brothers called Buddy. The dog had been wandering along the highway and a Nanaimo resident picked him up believing he might get the reward for Chibs. A second call recently of a Rottweiler running along Lakes Road turned out to also be unrelated but the Olsens returned her to the owner.
If anybody sees Chibs, Olsen asked that they don’t call out or run after him, but instead call her immediately to come pick him up.
In the event that somebody has taken Chibs, Olsen emphasized that any information is anonymous.
“We’re happy to buy that dog back if somebody purchased the dog,” Olsen said. “We just want him back.”
To help find Chibs visit the Help Find Chibs Facebook page at www.facebook.com/helpfindchibs, or call Olsen at 250-246-7627.
