This afternoon, a volunteer organization that is committed to finding missing dogs (team HELD), together with a sniffer dog from ‘NITIS track & trail’, searched for traces of dog Stuffie at the Hooidijk in Vries.
The six-year-old dog, a cross between a Chihuahua and a Maltese, has been missing since October 22.
Stuffie was last seen at the Hooidijk in Vries on November 16, 2023 and, according to Willeke Tonkes of Team HELD, she has not been spotted since. “A dog often goes into survival mode, looking for a hiding place. We still have hope that we can find her,” says Tonkes.
Her owners, Vera and Hillebrand Buwalda from Damwoude, feel powerless. Their 29-year-old daughter is ill and was operated on October 22 at the UMCG in Groningen. Their son had Stuffie with him that day and was visiting his in-laws in Vries. Buwalda: “He thought the garden was completely cordoned off, but that turned out to be a misunderstanding. As a result, Stuffie escaped from the garden. She is a fearful dog and difficult to approach.” The Buwalda family searched for evenings in a row and laid out tracks using a scent familiar to Stuffie, but without results.