Dog stolen from local home

An eleven year old cocker spaniel, Sparkie, was stolen from a home in Bealnamulla, Athlone on May 4 and it's believed that the dog was drugged prior to the theft.

A second dog, a golden retriever, is also believed to have been drugged in the incident but was not stolen. Owner of the dogs, Patricia Watson, believes the golden retriever was not stolen due to its larger size.

“We have CCTV but couldn’t get it to play back for us. We alerted our neighbours but no one saw anything as it was very early in the morning.

“We miss the dogs. I don't expect our dog (the one stolen) to have survived the drugging.”

She went searching for the missing cocker spaniel around the area and when she returned home her golden retriever was very disoriented. The dog also vomited a lot and experienced a vicious case of diarrhoea.

"Our small family of three feel terribly violated by the stealing of our much loved family pet. We are leaving extra lights on at night. We are worried and afraid.

"We worry about how Sparkie is being treated/illtreated, if he survived his drugging. We thought that we would get our other drugged dog home this afternoon but we just heard from the vet that she had a bout of diarrhoea again last night (Monday)".

The golden retriever is currently still at the vet's, struggling to survive on constant fluids, antibiotics and tummy meds. She had constant vomiting and bloody stools.

Patricia has contacted various agencies and organisations to help her try and locate her missing cocker spaniel.

“This is rife, it's happening under the radar,” the owner said.

A blood test was conducted when the dog was brought to the vets initially but no drugs appeared on the test, however, the owner said that the vet believed that the dog seemed to have been drugged.

Whoever stole the cocker spaniel seemed “to have given them pigs ears. Whatever they threw up were remnants of pigs ears,” she said.

“He is always hungry. He is always searching for food so he would have had no hesitation in eating pigs ears being throw in to him nor had his sister retriever.”

The cocker spaniel was neutered and microchipped and the microchip has been flagged to try and locate the dog. He has a large distinctive darker circle in the middle of his back that is visible when he is tightly groomed.

The stolen dog answers to the name of Sparkie and the owners are offering a reward for its safe return. “Sparkie is deaf and is the most loving and adorable family pet whom we miss so much...He hasn’t barked much since he lost his hearing but was quite a good watchdog before that.”