Bring Kallie Home: Shorewood Woman Searches for Missing Sheltie

After weeks of searching — even with the help of neighbors, friends and total strangers — Kallie the sheltie is still missing.

The pooch was in the care of Shorewood resident Bonnie Badurski on Sept. 6 when she escaped her collar and ran off. Now she’s asking area residents to keep an eye out for the dog, who belongs to her daughter.

“My daughter, Kiersten, and her family had to relocate from Anchorage, Alaska, to Melbourne, Australia, because of her husband’s job,” Badurski said. “ Because Australia has a six-month quarantine period, Kiersten asked me to keep her two shelties and her cat until the animals could be transported to Australia.”

There were just two months left on the quarantine period when disaster struck. Badurski was out walking the dogs when another pooch came charging at them.

“The dog did not attack,” Badurski said. “I think it just wanted to sniff a little. But Kallie got spooked and pulled so hard that she got her little head free of her collar and took off.”

Badurski said her neighbors in the Kipling Estates subdivision quickly came to her aid.

“Some people were at a garage sale across the street and saw what had happened. People came from everywhere, searching in cars, on bicycles, on foot,” she said. “A few of us walked shaking dog biscuit boxes because Kallie loved that sound.”

Badurski said her brother and his wife even made trips to Minooka and other places, at all hours of the day and night, after reports of Kallie sightings.

“Then the Central Illinois Sheltie Rescue team called, and they have been searching for the past two weeks,” she said. “They even brought in the tracker dog, who picked up Kallie’s scent in my neighborhood but then lost it. After the sightings in Minooka--could a little dog have made it that far?--they tracker picked up her scent but lost it by Route 80.”

Still, Kallie remains missing.

“My daughter calls me every day crying about ‘her baby,’” Badurski said. “She wanted to fly here from Melbourne to help in the search, but I finally convinced her that we were doing everything we could. She is so depressed--as am I since the dog was lost on my watch.”

A $1,000 reward is now being offered for Kallie’s safe return.

Area residents are asked to keep an eye out for the sheltie, who weighs 17 pounds. She was last spotted in Minooka.

If you do spot her, reps from the sheltie rescue caution against chasing her, since she will run from people she does not know.

Report any signtings by calling Cris at 708-932-3734.