METAIRIE, La. — A young dental student is asking for your help. That's after she was in a car wreck and her service dog, and family pet, escaped during all the commotion. And now there’s a sizable reward.
It was Halloween, the first time it had rained in weeks. The streets were wet and slick. Gracie Langham was driving with her adolescent golden retriever, Mav when she made a turn in Metairie at Clearview and Utica and skidded out.
“All of the airbags deployed, and Mav was very scared, and I was very scared, and I had to kick the door out. He sprinted away from me, and I was screaming his name, and running as fast as I could behind him, but I lost him,” said Gracie Langham.
For nearly a week, thousands have shared social media posts. Signs line the I-10. For nearly a week, they have searched.
“Screaming for him, and looking for him, and there were a few people that did say they saw a golden retriever running on I-10 and that a red vehicle had pulled over and stopped and they were holding him on the side,” Langham said.
But there's no video of any encounters with Mav, just posts about sightings, even in Kenner. Gracie is left with his crate and toys and the Halloween costumes they didn't get to wear.
And Gracie says she's been leaving personal items with her scent on them, and water bowls in places off of the interstate where Mav has been spotted.
Some of those items are still there in the Transcontinental and I-10 area. And what makes finding Mav more urgent, is Gracie has a severe nut allergy, and trained Mav to alert her to the health danger.
“So, whenever he would detect nuts, he would paw at my shin. So, he would pick up his paw and touch my shin.”
Mav also offered emotional support to the young LSU dental student, after losing both of her grandparents very recently. Now family, along with the Humane Society of Louisiana, is offering a $5,750 reward for the golden, while she's asking St. Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Animals, to help.
“We're covered in prayer and I'm lucky, but I can't wait to be covered in dog hair again,” she said.
Mav has a microchip implant to identify him.
Veterinarians in the area have been alerted to be on the lookout.
If you know of Mav's whereabouts contact 337-517-1997.
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