$1,500 reward for safe return of lost Yorkie in Curtice

By: 
Kelly J. Kaczala

        Kim Mullins, of Curtice, has been feverishly looking for her one-year-old dog, Kobe, since it got out of her backyard on April 18.
        The small dog, a Yorkie, seemingly vanished from their yard in the Wildflower subdivision off N.  Wildacre Road with no signs of its whereabouts.
        The dog, one of four owned by Mullins, had just got its weekly bath that day, a Sunday, she said.
        “I like to brush them and take their photos after they get their baths,” recalled Mullins. She assumed her husband or son had let him back into the house through a sliding glass door.
        “When I finished with him. I gave one of my other dogs a bath, too,” she said.           
        She remained outside for another two hours.      
        “I didn’t think anything of it because I thought Kobe ran back into the house. There were no holes in the fence, and our dogs have never gotten out of the yard. So I’m not sure how he got out. There was nobody else in the backyard. The gates were not open. Nobody stole him.”
        She reviewed footage from her Ring Doorbell video surveillance system, which is triggered by motion on three sides of her home. “I saw him at a particular time and then didn’t see him again,” she said.
        She dismisses the possibility that a hawk may have swooped down into her yard and grabbed the small dog. “I was in the backyard the entire time with him,” she said.
        When she finished bathing and brushing the other dog, they went in for the night.
        She went to the dining room expecting to find Kobe, but he wasn’t there.
         “I told my husband I couldn’t find Kobe. So we started looking for him,” she said.
        Someone on a local message board posted that there was a terrier running loose, and that it “sure was fast.”
        “I remember thinking, `Thank God it’s not mine.’ But now I realize it must have been him. He’s never gotten out before,” she said.
       
A tail
        As a Yorkie, Kobe has a unique characteristic: He has a tail, she said.
        “Yorkies usually don’t have tails, but he has a tail,” she said. “It curls up over his back.” He is also microchipped. Kobe weighs four pounds, two ounces.
        Mullins believes someone took the dog into their house, thinking they were helping provide shelter to a stray dog.
        “I think someone has him and decided to keep him. He’s a great dog. I don’t think there was any ill intent behind taking him in,” she said.
        Kobe wasn’t wearing a collar because he had just had a bath. “He had a pony tail in his hair and he sure smelled good,” she added.
        The pony tail, on the top of his head, may have been brushed out if someone has him, she said.
        A man living in her subdivision at Wildacre Road, whose yard backs up to the George F. Ackerman Company, an industrial equipment supplier, said he saw Kobe chasing a butterfly on the company’s property. “The man tried to get him to come to him, but he ran the other way,” she said.
        She has distributed 200 fliers with Kobe’s description, including his photo and her phone number. She has also given fliers to mail carriers in hopes they will see him on their routes.
        “We adore this dog. He’s everything to us. He’s such a sweet, sweet, sweet boy. We are heartbroken. It’s bad enough we have guilt he got out. My husband is more heartbroken than I am. This is my husband’s dog. He named him after his favorite basketball player, Kobe Bryant,” she said.
       
$1,500 reward
        She is very thankful for all the support she’s received from the neighbors.
        “Neighbors in our subdivision have offered to help look for him. I’m very touched. It’s taught me to be a better person and neighbor. Ackerman’s has been wonderful. They have been nothing but supportive. We go there every day at 9 p.m. There is a lot of equipment back there. They’ve been so kind. We go there and just call his name. It’s a big area. Lots of hiding places,” she said.
        “We put our dirty clothes on our front porch and back porch in hopes he will find his way back.
        “I’ve tried everything,” she said. “My mother has helped me stuff mailboxes with fliers. We put up signs in Navarre Park. People have called us from over there.”
        She has offered a $1,500 reward for Kobe’s safe return. If anyone has information on Kobe, call Mullins at 419-297-7593. No questions asked. She just wants him back.
        “I really believe in my heart of hearts that someone picked him up. He’s a little dog. He’s very cute. Maybe he ran for the first couple of hours, but he’s very loving. It would have been like a game to him because he’s so young.”
        At some point, he would have become hungry and approached someone’s yard looking for a handout, she surmised.
        “He is just happy go lucky,” she said.
       
       

Category:

The Press

The Press
1550 Woodville Road
Millbury, OH 43447

(419) 836-2221

Email Us

Facebook Twitter

Ohio News Media Association