Volunteers Donate Money, Time Looking for Lost Dogs

Photo: Missing border collie KD.

For several weeks people have been searching for KD, the lost border collie that went missing at a truck stop back in June near the I-55 Great Chicago Truck Plaza and Route 53.

Connie Cunningham of Woodlawn Canine Academy has been using a dog to try to track KD’s scent, but so far no sign of KD has been found.

But that doesn’t mean people have stopped looking. Quite the opposite. According to Cunningham, there are still tips coming in for the dog almost daily. Aug. 12 she received four tips and the day before she got two.

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“The exposure’s still phenomenal,” Cunningham said. “I’m so impressed with all these people. The momentum has not declined.”

The tracking dog, Echo, did pick up a scent earlier in the search but he hasn’t picked it up since. The next step in finding KD is to use some shirts from KD’s owner, Walker Bayas. Cunningham said they’ll narrow the area down to where they’re getting the most sightings and cut the shirts into pieces and hang them in the area.

“If KD is there, she’ll come near that scent and then we’ll track her a day or two later,” Cunningham said. “If we put her owner’s smell out there, KD might come and then we can go find KD.”

But this tracking effort isn’t just a one-woman show for Cunningham. There are several people who volunteer their time and money to help find not only KD, but all missing dogs.

One woman takes every lead and every sighting and maps it out. The people that volunteer are making fliers themselves, they’re making their own posters. They’re getting out there and doing everything they can, according to Cunningham.

“We all work so well together that when there’s a sighting, there’s always one person to run out there and look,” Cunningham said.

Bolingbrook resident Elaine Zager is one of those people. She has no connection to Walker Bayas or KD. She’s never met either. She is volunteering her time and money simply for the love of animals.

Zager got involved with looking for lost dogs in 2013 when she heard of a dog that had been lost in Peoria that was originally from Tennessee. Then she caught wind of another missing dog in her area and since then she’s worked on about five or six missing dog cases.

Lost dogs are personal for Zager. She lost her own and said she knows that horrible feeling.

“To be involved with some and experience the reunion, it’s amazing,” Zager said. “That’s what makes me want to do it. I have so many friends from being involved with this and still some I have never met. It’s a community that you just can’t describe.”

Through the search for KD, other dogs have been reunited with their owners.

“We’ll get sightings of a dog and we have people that go out and find that dog and we’ll post a picture up on our Facebook page and we’ll find the dog a home,” Cunningham. “That’s happened multiple times throughout this process.”

According to Zager, at least three dogs have been found and rescued because of the group’s efforts.

“They send us pictures and they send us links,” Zager said.

Some information about missing dogs can’t be released to everybody in order to keep the dogs safe. When that happens, a team of people involved with the KD is Lost Facebook page take it upon themselves to look for the dogs.

“There are people who will want to go out and do their own searches and will want to chase her and that’s the worst thing you could do,” Zager said. “So sometimes we can’t disclose all the information.”

Zager said she will put in between eight to 10 hours a week to look for animals, which is a labor of love for her.

“It’s all for the animals,” Zager said. “Dogs and cats give unconditional love. I’ve had them my whole life. It’s a way of giving back.”

If you’ve seen KD, contact Walker Bayas at 310-428-4721 or send a message to the KD Facebook page. A GoFundMe account has also been set up to raise money for a reward for the person who finds her.