After more than a month of searching the length of the lower Sunshine Coast for a beloved family dog named Cara, it appears the pooch has settled in Pender Harbour and is close to reuniting with her family.
The exhaustive search has included using a drone, trail cameras, animal search experts, a dog tracker, a Facebook page devoted to Cara’s return, the hanging of hundreds of posters and dozens of volunteers searching daily by land and by sea.
The “Where is Cara?” Facebook page has been shared over 240 times, has over 580 followers and has been the topic of discussion on several Sunshine Coast message boards for the past few weeks.
Since Cara’s disappearance near Langdale on July 3, there have been several reported sightings along the Coast – however, no one has been able to catch the frightened dog, described as a light brown and white terrier-lab mix.
With Cara now seeming to settle in the Pender Harbour area around Francis Peninsula, the family is asking the public to report any sightings to them at either 1-250-859-4622 or 604-989-3647, stressing that no one should approach Cara, who is fearful of people she doesn’t know.
Melissa and Manuel Sorge adopted Cara when she was a pup (around 10 months old) from a shelter in Kelowna. Cara had been a feral dog on the streets of Los Angeles before she found a loving home with the Sorges.
The couple were visiting the Coast with their young baby Harlow and now five-year-old dog Cara in July when the family took a trip to the beach, leaving Cara inside their Hopkins Landing vacation home.
Upon returning they saw that Cara had busted through a screened window left open for her comfort.
“She had jumped through the screen out the window and it’s about a storey up, so she jumped from pretty high up,” Melissa said. “That’s how she got out.”
Immediately the family started searching for Cara and continued looking until dark, but she was nowhere to be found.
“We think she had been already out for probably two hours by the time we even knew she was missing,” Melissa said.
Although the Sorges were set to head back to Kelowna the next day, Melissa said they stayed for an extra week, looking daily for their dog. “We searched every single day from five or six in the morning until dark.”
Needing to get back to Kelowna for work, the Sorges ultimately left the Coast without Cara, but not before plastering the community with posters, setting up a Facebook page and reaching out for help.
The community responded in a big way.
“Just tons of people, so, so many people have offered to do postering or even just to keep their eye out and forward [the Facebook page] to people they know. People have been going driving around and looking. So it’s lots of effort on everyone’s part. It’s amazing,” Melissa said.
Coasters have even offered food and lodging for Melissa the two times she’s come back to the Coast to search for Cara on her own.
Despite all the effort and some confirmed sightings in Gibsons, Davis Bay, Halfmoon Bay and now Pender Harbour, Cara is still on the loose and wary of people, making her difficult to catch.
“My husband and I worked really, really hard to socialize her with people but she’s still very fearful of people, especially men and children,” Melissa said, noting the issue stems back to when Cara was a feral dog running on the streets of L.A.
“She’s a completely normal, amazing dog with us and certain people, but strangers she’s quite terrified of.”
Now that she’s been sighted repeatedly around Francis Peninsula, the Sorges are hopeful they’re close to reuniting with their lost pet.
“What we’re trying to do is get her into an area, get her feeling comfortable and safe,” Melissa said. “So that’s why we’re asking people to just report their sightings to us, so then we can start setting up feeding stations and then we can set a live trap if that were to happen and then we can actually catch her.”
Melissa thanks everyone for their support and help during the past month searching for Cara. “It’s absolutely amazing. We’ve only had positive people giving encouragement,” she said.
If you think you see Cara, try to take a picture to confirm the sighting and contact the Sorges as soon as possible. Find out more and keep up to date on the search for Cara online through the “Where is Cara?” Facebook page.
