Fraudsters and Jealousy

Another weeks races by, another week of silence.

Just where is our dog, it's not a hard question is it.

How is that other dogs go missing and you see them desperately being added to Doglost, and then hours or a day later there they are on the reunited page of the same website.

I had this same scenario only today. Yesterday a dog, an Airedale was lost in Saffron Walden, it was added to http://www.doglost.co.uk/ and we added posts offering our help if needed, being the veteran dog searchers that we are. (What a claim to fame that is)

Only today when I checked on this dog did I panic not having seen it listed in the lost section, fears growing I searched through the reunited to be met happily with a post that the Saffron Walden dog was back home where she belonged. Phew !

Now that, a happy ending I know you will agree is fantastic news, but deep down through my happiness I felt utter pangs of sheer jealousy that that was not what happened with us. Why did our dog go missing and since that day never been spotted. Beggars belief really that in this somewhat small rural community a dog as blatantly obvious as Jacob can disappear.

To where though ? where did he go ? what happened to him, who had him, did someone knock him over and sling him into a ditch ? There are some that would do that if they could get away with it. Not everyone wants to confront owners with their dead dog do they ?

Could he have been hassling farmers game, even seen harassing those deer he was on the tail of ? I just don't know if he got shot for doing just that, that we would ever get to know, and this whole nightmare of not knowing will surround us forever, always making us jump when the phone rings showing a number we don't know or recognise.

We are at that stage where we want to know, and if someone did know something, then I just wish they would put us out of our misery, as misery is just what it is.

As you sit reading this safe in the knowledge that your furkids are with you, I am utterly jealous of that fact. I don't mind admitting it - it's not fair !

The whole "Welwyn-Kath" scenario is coming to a head finally.

Having liaised with Hatfield Police, who are keen for us to divulge anything we can remember or offer in way of texts/messages etc, this woman, actually named Joann Wood, amongst other aliases, is being sentenced soon on the 6 counts of fraud as well as 2 other cases of possession of type A drugs. She is nothing short of an evil-minded woman out to target those terminally ill, or the elderly who are befriended in the hope that they can be sentimental enough to buy her own story that she is dying of bowel cancer.

How anyone can lie about having cancer is beyond me. A disease that everyone has been touched by, be that having seen someone they love die or battle the disease it's shocking someone like her can betray these vulnerable people. I hope that she will be sentenced to a long stretch taking into account her prey.

You can read all about here http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/4433778.Woman_conned_cancer_victims_for_cash/

All very upsetting to be honest. Although we never trusted this lady, her intentions with regard to Jacob seemed genuine. Jon having directly asked her if she was making all the contact with the so called men at the lakes "Phil" and "Alan" up were met with "absolutely not, I would never do that to you" in reply.

Just goes to show, who do you trust, looks can be very deceiving.

One thing I will say though, is that first night when she called, something, call it intuition told me something was not right, but over time, in the hope of being reunited with Jacob that doubt, although still beckoning me to listen, was still there, hence we saved all voice messages and texts from her.

We are never going to be certain if she had her hands on Jacob at any time, after all she was motivated by one thing, and one thing alone, money. That would insinuate that the £1000 reward may have been the lure for her. She could have had him, knew of him, and hid him for the reward money, accomplices to do the hiding wouldn't be far from her mobile phone contacts of that i'm sure.

I guess now we will never know what the truth was. I'm assured by those in the know that little truth comes from her lips, so we have to reason what has become apparent is that she knows very little difference between reality and fiction. She evidently managed to forget her 'own self' sometimes as she decided to be a vet, policewoman and was also in the armed forces and a nurse amongst other well thought of professions. I think she truly lost the difference between who she really was each day she woke up.

I'm sorry for those elderly and ill victims of hers, for them the loss is great and is materialistic in that they lost pounds and pence, whereas our loss is purely just hope, even though it feels much greater than that.

Right now the plan is to ride on the back of the polices press releases, and hope that the nationals as well as local papers will pick up on our link to her story.

Will keep you posted of course of any developments.

Please keep spreading the word for our boy wherever you feel you can.

It's you guys that may just stumble across someone who knows something.

Back to basics

After a strange week of highs and then lows we've made the decision that we need to start our postering campaign right from the very beginning.
That is, start postering the local areas again, and then work out to the other bigger town in our main circumference.

Sometimes I feel we can do no more than we are already doing, but there's always something that we can do, and it feels really good to be pro active in the search.

We've heard some wonderful stories of dogs like Jacob literally disappearing off the face of the planet, and then suddenly appearing though misleading microchips or similar situations.

I know i've said about it previously in my posts, but the whole microchip situation worries me greatly, so so many people have come froward and told of their dogs going on to rehomes and being missing for years having being lost, only to be rehomed by some rescues, the original chip still in place.

It's shocking really, but if every vet and rescue thoroughly checked each and every dog properly this surely wouldn't be happening. I know it's difficult and the rescues time is hard to come by, and yes before anyone yells at me (!) I know they do a wonderful job. I just worry Jacob could be somewhere unknowingly sitting on someones sofa, happy in his new home, thinking his proper family have abandoned him for good. I can't tell you the feelings that raises in me, sort of a vicious twist of raging jealousy alongside anger and frustration.

Other theories brought to the forefront are that of him being shot by farmers for pestering their deer or their game. It has, and obviously can/could have happened. I just wish to god someone if they knew something would come forward, albeit they could do it anonymously, at least we could move forward and have that closure. This is nothing short of an open wound that won't heal. An itch you can't scratch.

Hmmmm......I just wish we knew where or what had happened to our boy.

Thankfully there are some brighter things on the horizon for us hopefully, and the summer months ahead always make you smile don't they, a little bit of sunshine, well it just makes everything seem that little bit better no matter how crappy things are.

We did have a high at the beginning of the week. A call came through from a lady known to friends of ours who own Bracco in the north, this ladies neighbour had recently rehomed a dog from a rescue there.

The long and short of that was that having spent time at the shelter viewing their dogs for rehoming she noticed what she believed to be a Bracco.

This call unfortunately came in late at night, so we had a restless night wondering and getting quite excited, and at 8am we called the rescue. The dog they said the lady had viewed was a Harrier Hound, another rare breed dog, and was not a Bracco.

The lady was sure the dog she came across at the rescue was orange and white, and the Harrier Hound (Logan) on their website, www.strayaid.co.uk was definitely lemon if anything, so we raised a few queries, alongside the fact that the lady on rescuing her little dog from the rescue kennels was given the story that her dog and the 'Braccoish' dog both were brought up from the south having been found by gypsies. To us this all seemed very credible it could have been Jacob, so as I said a restless night ensued.

The Bracco friend in the north very kindly actually went to the shelter and face to face he asked questions to be reassured that there was definitely never any Bracco in their care, and that every dog is listed on their website as part of their protocol.

I guess we have to accept that as being fact, nothing else we can do, we couldn't accuse them as we have no back up and we know from vast experience that sometimes it's easy to make a mistake as to to what you see. It's no ones fault, and we are always happy for anyone to query with us any dogs they feel might be our boy. Better safe than sorry.

One day, no matter how far into the future that one call, the one that says, yes we really do have your boy could well come in, and be the one that reunites us all. The Ginger Army are ever battle ready in the meantime, we are still here, emailing and phoning anyone that we feel should be made aware our boy is out there missing.

Just need that call now......

....as where's there's a mission, there's forever hope.

After the long silence.....

I can now tell you some news as to why.......

Today, after helping police with their enquiries, the lady (if you can call her that) Kath who apparently sighted Jacob on the 18th March with a man in Stanborough Lakes, Welwyn, was arrested and charged on 6 counts of Fraud, and 2 unrelated cases.
She was a parasite delving into retired persons lives, and defrauding them of money for investment and for fake cancer treatment.
She is a career criminal, one of the lowest forms of person that can walk the earth.
She never had cancer, something she claimed she was taking treatment for currently,
alongside that and the deception, most probably had she ever seen Jacob.

She had become an arms length 'friend' to us these past few months, offering us hope and getting us running about Welwyn in order that we spot someone walking our dog.
Hell, she even had Jon rushing back from Coventry one day on the knowledge that a fishing match was taking place, and that the man with Jacob would no doubt be there.
The time, hope, and money invested in her web of lies and deceit were purely there for her to worm her way into our lives and hopefully groom us in order to defraud.

Good thing is that we never trusted her, deep down we knew there was a hug niggle about that woman. I tried desperately to trust her, but things just didn't make sense, and things she said to us made us question her motives.
Knowing my maiden name without me having ever told her it, raised eyebrows.
She was obviously seeking information about my family, possibly with a view to defraud them.

Her home is not her home, it's a place where she rents a room, her car, is not her car, it's a friends car.
All a web of lies.
She even was arrested under another name, and by Midlands Police unit.

The whole thing has been deeply upsetting for us.
I know that in the great scheme of things we have come away without any losses other than that in time and hope but it hurts just as deeply as if someone had robbed us of every penny we had.
We now have no starting place to find our boy, no doubt he was never in the Welwyn area, and even if she (once questioned this week) tell the Police she definitely didn't make up the sighting, then how do we ever believe her.
I guess we will know as she will have to give the name of the man she said had had him and Police will investigate them too if they actually exist (which I very much doubt they did)

Such a terrible twist of fete we could have well done without.

No sightings in all these months is just leaving us at a loss as to what to do next, where to look next. What else can we do other that live in the hope that if someone, somewhere has Jacob, they will slip up and he will be seen and reported.

Meanwhile, the ever loyal Ginger Army will continue to email vets, and Dog Wardens nationwide to alert them to his being missing.
Once we are able legally, we will try to alert the papers of the evil twist in the the tale that's occurred, and reason that the 'angle' they needed is now there to allow him some much needed press attention.

Thoughts are in our heads as to maybe he did succumb to the weather back in January, or was shot by the farmers for pestering their livestock or game.
We just have so many conspiracy theories too.....the mind just ticks over at a rate of knots given half the chance, and comes up with all sorts, but no definite answers sadly.

One things for sure though, we will never give up and that deep lodged area of hope in our hearts will be there forever.
We now just wait, and hope for answers, some closure in one way or another.