AR-News: (Australia) Owner spends thousands to find lost dog

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Owner spends thousands to find lost dog
By <A HREF="mailto:mancusor at nqn.newsltd.com.au">ROBERTA MANCUSO</A>
28apr04

TALK about devotion. Rebecca Sheppard has so far spent $2500 on advertising, 
taken nearly three weeks off work and spent days combing just about every 
street in Cairns for her lost pooch Packer.

She has even put up a $3000 reward for information -- which she is willing to 
double if necessary, dipped into her house loan account and carried out 
thousands of letterbox drops. "It's not about the money or time spent," Ms Sheppard 
said yesterday. "The thing that's killing us the moment is not knowing what's 
happened to him. "He's our surrogate son, he's not just a dog. He's as much a 
part of the family as anyone else. "He was never treated like a dog, he was 
treated like a human." Packer went missing from the Cairns backyard of Ms 
Sheppard's grandmother on March 30 after escaping through a hole in the fence. Ms 
Sheppard, a Townsville fisheries resource officer with Queensland Fisheries 
Service, has since embarked on a campaign of great proportions to find the 
four-year-old rhodesian ridgeback - an effort which has included a television, 
newspaper and radio advertising blitz, plastering Cairns streets and letterboxes 
with missing dog posters and notices and scouring vet clinics. Despite receiving 
about 100 calls from members of the public in response to the campaign, Ms 
Sheppard said Packer remains elusive. "A lot of people have been saying don't 
give up hope," Ms Sheppard said. "It's nearly one month since we lost him so we 
are sort of losing hope. I don't think he's out there wandering, I think 
someone has got him. "I don't know that I'll probably ever give up looking for 
him." Anyone with information can telephone Ms Sheppard on 0438 780 886 or her 
mother Jenny on 0407 411 766. 
    

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