Tuesday June 12th 2012 - Blind dog lost in Northumberland

This has nothing whatsoever to do with camping but I felt I had to post it originally to help reach a wider audience.

Kip was a liver and white English Springer Spaniel rescue dog who went missing from Druridge Bay beach in Northumberland on Wednesday June 6th. His disappearance was made all the more upsetting as he was completely blind and had been since birth - needless to say, his owner Sylvia was absolutely distraught. When he went missing he was wearing a hi-vis vest with the words 'I AM BLIND' printed on it, though this was only fastened by velcro so could have come off at any time.

Sylvia had been working tirelessly to find him and there were people out searching for him day and night and in all weathers. A thermal imaging camera and a tracker dog were used on a few occasions and there were a few possible but unconfirmed sightings of a dog of that description in various areas close to where he went missing but unfortunately these all came to nothing. Kip went missing during the school holidays so it was possible that maybe someone reading this had been to that area of Northumberland on holiday round about that time and may have seen him. At the time of originally writing this there had been no sign of a body, nor had the hi-vis vest been found, so it was a possibility that someone could have picked him up and taken him out of the area, in which case he could have been anywhere in the country, though it was to be hoped that he was still close to home.

As an ardent dog lover and Doglost helper I asked anyone reading this to go to Kip's page on Doglost - http://www.doglost.co.uk/dog_blog.php?dogId=40127 and read through the posts, and if anyone could help in any way, however small, or even just send a message of support, then it would have been very much appreciated. Sylvia would have been absolutely overjoyed to have Kip returned safe and sound.

As of Tuesday June 19th there was a large cash reward being offered for information leading to Kip's safe return. I know I wouldn't have been the only Doglost helper who was keeping everything crossed that this would produce a positive result and Kip would soon be back home where he belonged. Although I couldn't physically help in the search for him I did what I could from my computer while also writing and posting pages on my recent trip to Anglesey, but I felt that Kip's plight was far more important so I left this, with a photo of Kip, as my home page for quite a while.

Unfortunately the outcome of the search for Kip didn't turn out the way everyone hoped, and though this post no longer applies I don't really want to remove it completely so I've amended some of the wording and will let it stand.