Owner offers reward after she says puppies were stolen from her B.C. home

Two puppies who their owner said were stolen from a B.C. home more than a week ago are still missing and she is very concerned about what might have happened to them.

Owner Kate Classon said the two Maltese Shih Tzu puppies were taken from her home in Abbotsford on Monday, Sept. 21 when they were only seven weeks old and not ready to leave their mom yet.

Classon has been a small breeder for about five years but said the dogs are like her family members above anything else. “They missed their vet appointment on Thursday the 24th for their vet check-up and first immunizations since they weren’t here with us to go,” she told Global News.

Classon and her eight-year-old son lost their home and one of their dogs in a fire two years ago, forcing them to move to a home in Abbotsford in what Classon calls “a rough area.”

She said on Sept. 21 she fed the dogs and headed off to school at 7:30 a.m. Her dad and her son were both home at the time the dogs went missing, with her son doing online school upstairs with headphones on and her dad working on the downstairs suite. “So he was back and forth from the main part of the house to the suite and to the backyard to the workshop where the saws and tools are,” she said.

“At this time my dad didn’t think to keep locking the front door because honestly, who would think to have to do that while you are on the property going in and out,” she added.

That is when she believes someone walked into her house and stole two puppies, one of which her son had spent lots of time bonding with since losing his dog in the house fire. “He is devastated as well as terrified to be at home,” Classon said. “This has destroyed our feeling of security in our own home.”

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Abbotsford police have opened a file on the missing dogs but Classon said she was told there is little they can do and it’s best to help get the word out on social media. Global News has reached out to Abbotsford police for comment. They did not immediately respond.

“I don’t know why anyone would steal puppies,” she said. “It is an unimaginable thing to do. However, there is such a high demand for puppies right now that according to the vets, this type of crime is on the rise.”

Classon is now offering a $1,000 reward for each puppy to be returned safely. In addition, the puppies were already promised to a new home. “Hearts are breaking with these girls missing,” Classon said. “I watched them grow in my home and their new families watched through pictures and videos anxiously waiting for the day they would bring them home. Sadly, not everyone got to have that day because of some selfish person doing the unthinkable.”

She is just hoping someone recognizes the puppies or sees an ad for them for sale.

“I worry they may be sold into questionable situations, or that whoever stole them has them and is clearly not in a position to care for them properly,” she said. “I have many scary scenarios that run through my head. I am worried that being females they may end up in a terrible puppy mill situation. I also fear that whoever has them will be too scared to take them to a vet in fear of them being recognized which means they won’t receive their immunizations leaving them at risk for contracting dangerous and even deadly diseases such as parvo.”

She added she hopes they have been sold into good homes for the time being and are at least getting their basic needs met.

If anyone thinks they know the whereabouts of the puppies or has any information on them, contact Abbotsford police with the file number AB20-37678 and provide as many details and pictures if possible.