Maria Moran is exhausted after spending nearly three days looking for her beloved dog Rio.
“Picturing life without him is pretty excruciating,” Moran told Global News.
Rio, a roughly one-year-old Chihuahua rescue, was being walked for the first time by a dog walker in Summerland Saturday morning when a group of dogs approached
“They were all visiting and Rio got nervous and the leash got dropped. And then he booked it up to the highway,” she said.
A witness reported seeing Rio get hit by a car on Highway 97 close to an RV campground near Trout Creek.
Rio then continued running north towards Lakeshore Drive, with two leashes still attached.
“He was running with two leashes down the highway, ” Moran said.
One leash is black and blue, the other pink.
He was also wearing a Christmas-themed collar.
Moran and her family have been searching for the pup since Saturday morning, scouring the area where the dog was last seen, putting alerts on numerous social media pages as well as contacting the BC SPCA and animal control.
“We put posters up all over Summerland,” she said.
She’s now pleading for the public to help keep an eye out for Rio
“If people could maybe check their yards, if he was hurt and you know, it’s such a vast amount of property up there, that it’s just impossible for me to cover it all, Moran said.
If you spot Rio or have any information, you’re asked to call 250-490-7799.
“He’s pretty timid,” she said. “He doesn’t bite or isn’t unfriendly but he may be hard to catch.”
Moran said she doesn’t know what else to do and is exhausting all avenues to try and find her beloved pet.
“Just awful. One of the worst things I’ve ever been through,” she said.