A bereft dog owner who is still searching for her lost pet two months after he disappeared says she is still receiving sick hoax calls. Katie Wright, 36, says people are still ringing to tell her her beloved Bucky had been killed.
The pooch vanished from a street in Rubery in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on Thursday, June 9, and has not been seen since. According to Katie, who is currently expecting a child, the dog was repotedly seen being "chased by a man" the day after and had been "possibly stolen".
In the days after his disappearance, neighbours formed a search party for the tan-coloured border terrier. But pranksters who noted Katie's number from dog posters have been making sick calls about the pet, reports BirminghamLive.
Katie, a veterinary receptionist, said: "There are people still pulling down all the posters. We are still getting a lot of hoax phone calls.
"We are not sure if it is kids because of the summer holidays or just people being generally not very nice. Somebody said they had sold him on and we should stop looking. And then laughing.
"So we know it is most likely not true because we're still getting sightings. It's just constant not very nice phone calls with people telling us he's dead and things like that. It's not very nice."
More than 300 flyers had been handed out and search teams are on standby to go out looking for Bucky. He has been spotted a number of times - most recently this weekend - but without confirmed sightings and a photograph, the search team cannot go out.
When Katie last spoke to Birmingham Live, she said the nine-year-old Terrier Cross was epileptic and needed regular blood tests and medication. She urged anybody with any information to come forward.
She added: "We want people to keep their eyes out for him if they are in the area. The one thing we are having an issue with is when people are possibly seeing him they need to take a photo of him and confirm it's him.
"Try not to chase him or call him just take a picture of him and let us know straight away. If someone does have him, hand him into a vet. It's theft by finding if you find him and keep him. It's a criminal offence."
A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said: "We’ve been told that the border terrier escaped and the owner put up posters in the area. Since then, the owner has reported that they have had calls from a man claiming to have her pet. From questioning the people, the woman knew the calls were fake but she has rightly reported them to us."
If you have seen Bucky or have any information please contact K9 SEARCH UK via email at alerts@k9searchuk.com
