A dog owner is worried sick after her beloved pet ran away from home after getting spooked by fireworks at the weekend. Sabina Langridge is 'beside herself' after her 10-month-old Maltipoodle Koko fled their home in Immingham, outside Grimsby, on Saturday night (November 4).
Sabina and husband Peter have been desperately trawling the streets and parks near their home searching for Koko, who ran out of the house and is thought to have escaped through a gap in a nearby gate after hearing a loud bang on Bonfire Night. The couple were at home with Koko at around 7.30pm that night when a huge bang prompted the little dog to shoot out of the room.
Peter asked Sabina if Koko had ran to her, but he hadn't - so they ended up looking for the dog outside, thinking he must have squeezed through a gap in the gate, Grimsby Live reports. The pair have not given up hope that Koko will be found and have been searching everywhere for their beloved pet.
The community has rallied to help find Koko, with a local missing pet group called Charlie's Angels even using drones to try and locate him. Sabina has been left devastated by Koko's disappearance, who she describes as her "baby".
It has been a difficult year for Sabina, which started with the loss of her beloved pet Shar Pei to kidney failure in January. She bought Koko to try and help her get over the loss.
On top of that, she's recently recovered from surgery and Koko had been a great tool to help her get back to her normal self. Not being able to have children herself, she sees Koko as her own child.
Sabina said: "Koko is my baby, he'll come get me up in the morning and sleeps by my feet every night, he doesn't leave my side. The worst part at the minute is all the memories of what we used to do together and what we'd do for him.
"In Tesco the other day, I broke down because I would normally have been buying his dog food. It's just been such a bad year and it feels like one thing after another at the minute."
Explaining what happened the night Koko went missing, Sabina said: "Myself, Peter and Koko were at home on Saturday, when we heard a loud bang in the evening at around 7.30pm. He shot off out one room and my husband asked me if he'd come running into me, but he hadn't. After about 10 or 15 minutes we started looking for him outside, having thought he'd squeezed between the gaps in our gate.
"He's only 4.5kg bless him so it wouldn't be too difficult for him to do something like that. Now on our third day of looking for him, it's really worrying." She added: "He's only ever been apart from us for around two to three hours when we go do the shopping. Any longer and he comes with us."
Following his disappearance, there were a number of possible sightings in the nearby village of Habrough, but none were confirmed as being Koko. With this in mind, Sabina has become more and more worried.
"At the minute, we just keep going round to places people have said they've seen him and where we think he might be."
Sabina has also given out some advice for anyone who may come across him. She said: "The best thing to do is ring one of the three numbers on our poster, but if not then I would get down to his level, be quiet and let him come to you. If anyone tries to go near him that he doesn't know it's likely that he'll just run away."
If anyone spots Koko, they've been advised to ring one of the three following numbers:
07933262222 - Sabina
07813337079 - Jo
07923552260 - Caroline
