A Hall County elementary school counselor said she is desperately hoping someone can help her find her 11-year-old dog Wicket, who went missing during a home break-in over the weekend.
Not only is Wicket Sonia Stewart's pet, but he is also a therapy dog that helps children at Chestnut Mountain Elementary School with reading. In fact, Wicket had been helping with online classes during the coronavirus outbreak.
"Wicket visits the school every Friday and kids get to see him every Friday, so for them this was another way to stay connected in a school setting and being able to do something different and be able to see him in his home environment," Stewart said. "He actually got to read with several children last week...he was just sitting there listening to them read virtually."
Stewart said she has been too upset to talk with the children online about Wicket, so she notified the school staff, so they could tell parents that the reading sessions with Wicket would not happen Monday.
"I'm still kind of in shock and [have] crying spells about the fact that he's gone," Stewart said.
Stewart said Wicket is not crated, so he has free run of her Buford home when she is away. She left home to work a part-time job at Amazon over the weekend and arrived home Sunday morning around 11:15 a.m. Stewart said her garage door had been opened, and she went inside to find a number of electronics missing. The "stuff" is not what she's worried about, though.
"I looked through my whole entire house — upstairs, basement, closets, extra bedroom looking for the dog, and there was no sign of Wicket anywhere," Stewart said.
The Gwinnett County Police Department is investigating the burglary, but as of Monday afternoon, the police report was not available for review.
Stewart said she hopes someone sees Wicket, who has been with her since he was 8 weeks old, and does the right thing — sending him home so that she and the kids at Chestnut Mountain Elementary School can be reunited with their friend. One organization is helping with a reward for anyone who can help find Wicket. Helping Lost Pets has a website (www.helpinglostpets.com) for more information. The group's phone number is 678-357-5312, and Wicket's case number is 3284145.
Wicket, an 11-year-old therapy dog, belongs to Sonia Stewart, a school counselor with Chestnut Mountain Elementary School in Hall County. Stewart says someone broke into her home in Buford while she was at her part-time job at Amazon., and when she arrived home Sunday, Wicket was missing. (Photo courtesy of Sonia Stewart)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2020/3/889138/school-counselor-says-therapy-dog-is-missing-after-buford-home-burglary