Hartsville woman seeks help in finding blind pet

Deborah Gandy clutched a photo of her eight-year-old Yorkshire terrier, Cooper, while holding her other dog, Ricky, as she talked about Cooper’s disappearance.

“He’s my baby, and I want him back,” Gandy said.

Cooper has been missing since Sunday when he jumped out of her car near the First Baptist Church. Cooper can’t see his way home. He is blind.

As Gandy, broker/owner Coldwell Banker Gandy-Tiller and Associates, drove to show a house Sunday morning with Ricky in the front seat of the car and Cooper in the back, Cooper jumped out of the back window. Gandy said her dogs often accompanied her to show a prospective buyer houses and road in the car with the windows open. They had never tried to jump out before. Their leashes and collars were on the front seat so Cooper, a registered, silver Yorkie, has no identification. Gandy kept the collar and the lease together, a mistake she said she won’t make again.

Gandy said the dogs were lap dogs and didn’t leave the house except for walks around downtown Hartsville where she works and lives.

Since Cooper went missing, Gandy said two friends have told her they spotted Cooper near the Sonic Drive In Sunday and they saw a car stop, a woman get out and pick up Cooper, who was limping, and put him in her car.

Cooper is a special dog, Gandy said. He has cushions disease for which he takes medicine daily. He has allergies and requires special food. Cooper has been fixed and has had gall bladder surgery Gandy added.

He has been blind for about a year and will run into things if he is not accustomed to his surroundings, she said.

Immediately upon discovering Cooper missing, Gandy retraced her steps, stood at the First Baptist Church as people were coming out and asked if they had seen her dog. She said Brandy Zeller who works at Allstate downtown made flyers to post all over town. Friends began posting Cooper’s picture on Facebook.

“It is amazing what Facebook can do,” she said.

So many people have joined the search for Cooper.

Gandy said people all over South Carolina are posting his photo on Facebook trying to help Cooper make his way home.

Gandy said one thing is certain she has learned her lesson about not having a collar on her dogs. She is also going to have a chip placed in Ricky and in Cooper if he comes home so that if taken to a veterinarian they will be identifiable.

Gandy is optimistic that Cooper is alive. She is offering a reward for his safe return. She said she feels like it was someone who cares about animals that stopped and picked him up, but they just don’t know how to reunite him with his owner. She is worried because he is overdue for his medicine, and she and Ricky miss him terribly.

If anyone knows anything about his whereabouts, Gandy asks that they call 843-229-9736 or they can drop him off at Coldwell Banker on E. Carolina Avenue or Allstate Insurance Company on S. Fifth Street in downtown Hartsville.