Community searches for injured puppy missing for 11 days in Kingston, N.S.

Forty-eight people took part in a grid search Saturday afternoon to look for a five-and-a half-month-old puppy from Kingston, N.S., that's been missing since Feb. 20.

According to his owner, Courtney Hawley, a pitbull at a doggy daycare bit Kevin on the neck that day. She had just arrived to pick up him when she "heard Kevin's screams." She said she and the owner of the doggy daycare pried the other dog off Kevin.

"By the time that we had the other dog under control, Kevin, he was gone off into the woods," Hawley said.

Hawley said she ran into the woods to look for Kevin, but he was long gone.

Support for Kevin

She said Kevin didn't appear to be badly injured. She said the owner of the doggy daycare managed to get her hand in between the other dog's mouth and Kevin's neck.

"I do want everyone to know that [the doggy daycare owner] has absolutely no blame in this. She has done everything in her power to look for Kevin and to take care of me," Hawley said.

"She's an amazing person, her business is amazing… and I don't know what I'd do without her."

When Hawley couldn't find Kevin, she called her husband and people began searching right away but there was no trace of the basset hound.

Hawley said there's a $1,000 reward for whoever finds Kevin. She said it's been an extremely stressful time since he's been gone.

"I can't really imagine going on without him," she said.

When he disappeared, he was wearing a teal-coloured collar attached to a long red lead. She said it's possible the lead may not be attached to the collar anymore because it was an inexpensive one that Kevin could have chewed off.

"I don't care about the money, I just want him back," she said.

Grid search

Michael Chapman led Saturday's grid search for Kevin in the thick forest behind the doggy daycare on North Mountain near Kingston. Volunteers scoured the area from 9 a.m. to noon, he said.

"I think he's a roadrunner. I think the incident that happened scared him so bad he beelined for anywhere but there and there just happened to be another side road and I think he may have gotten on that and just ran," Chapman said.

He said the only sign of Kevin during the search was a dead rabbit surrounded by dog prints. But Chapman said the prints could have belonged to coyotes.

"He's got sort of a distinctive paw. A few of us went back to look at that and get a few pictures because we're getting snow tonight," Chapman said.

Chapman, who is retired after spending 27 years in the military, described himself as a "crazy dog person." He organized the search after his wife showed him a Facebook post about the missing puppy.

"I've never seen support like this from communities just throwing an article out on Facebook and asking for volunteers ... It was unbelievable," Chapman said.

Hawley agrees. She said she has hope Kevin is still out there.

"We're never going to give up until we find him," she said.