I'm writing to share my family's story with you. It's about a family who tracked down a 6 pound Maltese in a city of 8 million people. Our dog, Corky, was taken from in front of our home last Tuesday morning. We live in a brownstone on 9th street between 6th and 7th Avenue, and had never had a problem leaving him out for less than a minute to go grab something from inside.
After discovering that Corky was taken, we then combed the immediate area thinking maybe he got lost or something of the sort.

We went down to nearby 5th avenue later that day and discovered that a man, a woman and their daughter came in holding a dog without a leash. The owner suspected something wasn't right from their disorientated state; they were carrying our 3 year old Corky in their arms, without a leash, saying they needed one because they just bought him.

Shortly after they left, my husband, a friend, and I went into that very same store with a description of our animal, and the owner told us his story. He said he had seen the "family" around, and they were wanderers, most likely on drugs.

How true that was.

We then began to comb the area, making black and white flyers and putting them everywhere we could possibly post them. It was an outrageous scene, four people worked day and night looking for Corky, meanwhile my four children were in such hysterics because they love Corky. Although this may seem like this is just a dog, Corky means a lot to us, this year has been incredibly rough, with the death of my mother on Good Friday, and a few weeks later, having to put my loyal, 16 year old dog, Heidi, to sleep.

It was similar to the straw that broke the camel?s back. That very same day, people and a dog fitting the same description were caught trying to steal supplies in a different Petland in Sunset Park.

The next day, Wednesday, after spending hours upon hours looking for Corky, looking for those people, or any sign, we received another phone call from a young man who was approached by a male, with a small male Maltese in his arms, to purchase. The man declined to purchase the dog, his reasons being it sounded fishy, not to mention the man selling the dog said ?How much would you pay? $150? What kind of dog is this??. We used this information to concentrate our search in the 5th Avenue/Sunset Park area.

We decided to make color copies with more pictures of Corky, and  picture with the kids, to maybe pull at the thieves heartstrings. We actually received the copies, free of charge, from an angel Susan, who?s place of employment we?d like to leave out for the sake of her job. The color copies did the trick, because more people had either recognized the dog, seen the dog with the family, or in our case, one man actually knew of these people.

We received tips from one gentleman who was in the same "circle" as those people. We discovered that the adults frequented the methadone clinics in the area, and were accustomed to stealing animals to sell them for money. This just about broke our hearts, to think that drug addicts were holding our dog, or worse, selling him for a cheap high.

Neighborhood after neighborhood, bus drivers, sanitation workers, postal workers, fire fighters, school children, drug addicts, pretty much everyone was looking for Corky.

We also posted ads on craigslist.org, emailed local free papers to post ads, posted Corky?s information on Petfinders.com, Pets Missing In Action and etc. We received such a great response, from people sending us prayers, words of encouragement, ideas to recover our animal and even offers to come to Brooklyn to help find him. Every dog walker in the area was contacted to keep an eye out for Corky.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in the Viewer Viewpoint are not necessarily your Guide's views and opinions.