Lilly is Home After 262 Days Missing!

PAWS is thrilled to announce that the last of the missing PAWS dogs, Lilly, is finally home after 262 days in the wild! Lilly is an elderly black lab mix that got away from her adoptive family on June 28th, 2011. Lilly had only arrived to the DC metro area a mere two days before from the PAWS sanctuary in Missouri. She was a “worst case scenario” to lose- timid, desperately fearful of people, and completely unfamiliar with her surroundings.

PAWS volunteers immediately launched into action. We organized massive volunteer searches with up to 30 people and placed over 2,000 posters and fliers in the area Lilly was lost. We then arranged for three humane traps to be monitored by motion detected cameras and checked by incredible volunteers three times a days. We sent out 1,000 postcards to the neighbors through Pet Harbor, and three rounds of automated telephone messages through FindToto. Every animal control unit, veterinary clinic, police station, fire department, highway department, school, and church were notified. Thousands of emails went out to Yahoo message groups and local rescue groups. A “Help Us Find Lilly” blog and facebook page were created.

When all of that didn’t work, we flew her best dog friend, Cheyenne, from Vermont to DC with a volunteer Pilot through PilotsnPAWs to aid in the search. Thousand of dollars were spent and an entire community was looking for a black mutt that had once been dumped on the side of the road and shot at by an uncaring owner.

During the first month, we received multiple phone calls reporting sightings. But as time went on- fewer and fewer calls came in. Our last reliable sighting was September 9th, 2011. After that, things went dead for seven long, painful months. We kept trying different ideas to continue to reach out to the public, but none of our efforts yielded anything.

That all changed on March 7th, 2012. A lovely woman named Sylvia called and said, “