Family go the extra mile to find beloved missing pet

A distraught family are looking for help to find their beloved pet dog Maisie, who has been missing for three weeks.
Maisie has been missing for three weeks.Maisie has been missing for three weeks.
Maisie has been missing for three weeks.

The McArthur family’s working cocker disappeared on her walk in Killearn on a sunny Monday morning at the end of March.

Working cocker spaniels are prone to zip off after rabbits, but Maisie never lets her owners out of her sight, so they raised the alarm immediately and a huge community search began.

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They started locally, combing the fields and woods nearby with the help of friends, neighbours and fellow dog-owners in the village.

Neighbours were very helpful, raking through their gardens and sheds in case she had somehow got stuck or shut in. A drone was used to fly over nearby fields and moors.

A search and rescue specialist from Epic Dogs in East Kilbride was called in and gave some fascinating advice about how a lost dog might behave.

The expert advised that a lost family dog who is normally relaxed and friendly will often go into a survival mode, losing the ability to sense familiar surroundings or people.

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Hiding by day, they will forage for food and can survive for many weeks.

As they get hungrier they will start to take risks in coming out of hiding so that’s when hopefully someone will spot them.

Even then it can take hours to coax them to come out of survival mode enough to recognise their owners and be reunited.

The family started leaving socks and other items of clothing which they had worn around the local area to help Maisie recognise their scent and come out of hiding.

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They also started a social media campaign with a Facebook page “Find Missing Maisie”.

It now has over one thousand likes, each post being shared all over Scotland with up to a million people seeing

it.

If she has been stolen then the aim is to make her “too hot to handle”.

Three weeks on and there is still no sign of Maisie but the family haven’t given up hope and continue to search and drive the social media campaign daily.

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Heather McArthur said: “We are so grateful for all the help and support. Everyone says ‘it could have been my dog, so I just want to help’. Hopefully everyone’s efforts will pay off and we will have Maisie back soon.”

If you have any information go to the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=find%20missing%20maisie