Daisy was found on June 17. An update can be found here.
A Shawnigan Lake woman is asking the public to keep an eye out for her missing dog, who is trained to help her with her diabetes.
Ciara Cownden says she was out on a hike with her dog, Daisy, when her collar slipped off and she ran off.
“And I guess she got spooked or distracted by something and followed it into the bushes,” Cownden said in an interview with CHEK News. “And then after that we didn’t see her for a couple days.”
Cownden says she was walking in the area around West Shawnigan and Harvey roads when Daisy went missing.
Daisy is almost 11 months old, and Cownden says since she has Type 1 diabetes, Daisy is her emotional support animal as well as being trained to fetch her glucose monitor and a juice box.
“That’s really important, especially because if I am having a hypoglycemic episode and having low blood sugar, it can be hard to even walk around to go and get supplies, you’re very shaky,” Cownden said. “So I’ve trained her to go and collect those things and bring them to me when I need them.”
Jill Oakley, owner of FLED – Find Lost & Escaped Dogs Vancouver Island, says there have been some sightings of Daisy, and is asking people to not try and approach her if they see her, instead call FLED right away.
“We recommend that they note the exact spot they saw her in the time and day and her direction of travel,” Oakley said, stressing that Daisy is stressed and will only run if people try to catch her.
“The best thing that we can do is is humanely trap her, which is what we’re going to do. But we need to find her before we before we can do that, but that would be the kindest way to get her instead of having people trying to catch her because you’re not going to catch her you’ll never be faster than her.”
Oakley says that since Daisy is a herding breed, rather than a hunting breed, it is likely she will be very hungry so she is hopeful the feeding station will help keep her in one location, then the feeding station will be replaced with a trap to hopefully catch her.
Oakley says the last confirmed sighting of her was last Sunday, but on Monday night FLED received a call that it is currently investigating.
“They’re in an in an area of interest, which we do not report so that people don’t go up there and try to find her because she’s very skittish,” Oakley said. “So we are heading up there to scope out the area to see if we can put a feeding station up.”
Oakley says if someone sees Daisy it’s important to call right away. She’s had a few people call in a day or two after she was spotted, but Daisy would have moved on by the time they can get to the area.
Cownden asks that if anyone sees Daisy, to call FLED right away so that people can know where to look for her.
“The number one best thing to do is to call FLED, the numbers on the posters there. Multiple people have tried to approach her instead and tried to capture her and it’s making it a lot more difficult to deal with the situation,” Cownden said.
“I’m in contact with FLED literally 24/7. So if someone calls anytime of the day or night, I can go out and look. So that would be the best thing to do is to call FLED.”
CHEK News
