Mystery abounds after labradors come home after a ‘lost’ fortnight

IT was a New Year miracle for one Clonakilty family when their two dogs who had gone missing from their home on Christmas Eve arrived home within days of each other last week.

The duo were slightly worse for wear after their two-week adventure but the family were delighted to get them home. They have no idea where the exploring duo spent almost a fortnight.

Karen Santry and her family in Lissavaird told The Southern Star that they were overjoyed to have that 12-year-old Labrador Snowy and her eight-year-old Labrador cross daughter Snowflake safely back home.

‘We noticed they were missing on Christmas Eve evening but we didn’t worry too much until Christmas Day when there was still no sign of them. We started to get worried then as they would never disappear like that,’ said Karen.

‘By St Stephen’s Day alarms bells were ringing .We were afraid they might have been hit by a car or that they got into trouble somewhere,’ recalled Karen.

They posted online about their missing dogs, and the people of West Cork and beyond instantly started sharing the post in a bid to locate them.

‘It just took off from there really. A lady from West Cork Animal Welfare Group actually advised me to ‘keep it hot and going’ online and that’s what we did so everyone knew about our dogs.’

But as the days went on Karen and her family were getting increasingly worried as there had been no sighting of the roving pair. They thought that maybe someone had locked them in their shed and may not have been aware of the social media campaign.

‘There was two weeks of absolute nothing with no sightings so we feared that they must have been stolen.’

However, to the surprise of the whole family, Snowflake, arrived home on Sunday afternoon January 6th and was spotted in the garden.

‘She came out of nowhere, she was very thin and shaken. We washed her down and after a few hours she began to come around and we were delighted, while at the same time hoping that Snowy would arrive home safely too.’

And Snowy did just that – she was spotted by a neighbour two days later, on the Tuesday and was re-united with a grateful Santry family.

‘She was very shook too, and we took both of them to the vets – they are good now. People have been contacting us expressing their delight that the two dogs returned home. We are haunted really and it’s a complete mystery where they went to.’

‘We want to thank everyone in West Cork and beyond for sharing our online posts and West Cork Animal Welfare Group too, for all their help and encouragement, as well as our neighbours and friends.’

Karen is adamant that Snowy and Snowflake’s wandering days are over for now and she will be watching them like a hawk.

‘The advice we got was never give up on your dogs. We didn’t and thankfully it worked out for us.’