A desperate week-long search for an autistic boy’s beloved companion dog ended in sorrow Sunday when the golden retriever was found dead in a ditch.
“We’re devastated,” said Jackie Brown who bought the dog for her son Alex. “We hoped, we tried, everybody was out trying. We just didn’t find her in time.”
Sasha ran off while her Ottawa family was in the Harrow area over the Thanksgiving weekend. The three-year-old dog suddenly bolted when Brown’s father took her outside. The family has no idea what caused Sasha, who was always uneasy when not around her people, to run off.
Brown said her 13-year-old son Alex has been heartbroken since his best friend went missing.
Sasha wasn’t a registered service dog but she was a therapeutic and calming influence for Alex. The two rarely left each other’s side. The night that Sasha disappeared was the first time in three years she didn’t sleep with Alex.
After Sasha disappeared, Essex County OPP issued a media release asking people to keep an eye out for her. Volunteer search parties fanned out across the Harrow area.
The Brown family had to go back to Ottawa after Thanksgiving, but returned to Harrow Friday to continue the search. The bad news came around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Brown said friends and volunteers had been out searching and putting up flyers.
After spotting a collar on the Arner Townline near the Heritage Village, one of the searchers found Sasha’s dead body at the bottom of a deep ditch.
“Somebody saw a red collar on the side of the Arner, and they said it had been there on Saturday as well,” said Brown. “They went and they found the collar, and then found her. They would never had found her if we didn’t know about the collar.”
She suspects someone ran over Sasha Friday night.
“If they knew they hit her and they left her there, that really saddens me,” said Brown. “Maybe they looked and didn’t find her. But it saddens me to know that happens, that anybody could hit an animal and then just leave it on the side of the road.”
Despite the sad conclusion to the search, Brown said she was inspired by all the kind people who spent days searching for Sasha.
“I’m so grateful to everybody in Essex County and Windsor who helped, who had her in their thoughts,” said Brown. “It’s nice to know there’s community out there, a community that cares.”
