Every post office delivery vehicle and most FedEx trucks in Brentwood have “lost dog” posters for a missing brown-and-white Corgi. Several hundred more posters are on stakes all over Williamson County.
And that’s just the start of the search for a 6-year-old pooch named Kaylee, who went missing Wednesday morning.
Deborah Lovett of Brentwood — Kaylee’s human gramma — also has organized dozens of volunteers and spent more than $2,000 to hire a professional search team from Arkansas. And the bill is sure to go at least several hundred dollars higher.
“If you were on the outside looking in, you might think we’re crazy and we have more money than sense,” said Sarah McFarland, 29, Kaylee’s owner and Lovett’s daughter.
But Lovett has the means — and the guilt — to do the most thorough search she can. The Corgi was with Lovett when the dog made a break for it.
Lovett was taking the doggie to her veterinarian at Bradford Animal Hospital, and hadn’t put a collar on Kaylee before Lovett opened the car door.
Lovett panicked immediately.
“She’s an extremely sweet dog,” Lovett said. “To think I might be the instrument of something bad happening to that living creature, it’s just awful.”
So Lovett turned to Google and Facebook to find the best way to locate and retrieve Kaylee. And the same answer kept coming back: Hire the company Lost Pet Professionals, which uses teams of one human and four tracking dogs to find lost pets.
“Never do for yourself what you can pay someone to do for you better,” Lovett said.
The searchers got into Brentwood on Sunday, and they have told Kaylee’s family that the tracking dogs picked up Kaylee’s scent several times, including once Sunday night near Forrest Crossing golf course in Franklin.
That gives hope to McFarland and her mom. But McFarland still was devastated Monday night.
“I have no idea where she is, what she’s doing. Has she eaten anything? It’s a really miserable experience,” McFarland said.
“It’s harder because my husband is really affected by this. It’s kind of like we’re deciding whose turn it is to be crying. It’s gut wrenching.”
Anyone with information is asked to call McFarland on her cellphone, 615-480-0570.
McFarland gets that some people might think she and her mother are going overboard to try to find Kaylee.
But, she said, “It’s not about the money, it's about the dog. She is a wonderful dog who has been well loved in her forever home with my husband and I.
“She doesn't deserve to be forgotten in the cold outside or given up on because she's difficult to catch.”
