'They are my life': Hospitalized Omahan wants to find her missing dogs

Lost Pets of Omaha Area often deals with heartbreaking stories about missing pets.

But one has struck a chord with the more than 58,000 followers of the Facebook page, which has helped reunite 17,000 lost pets since it was started in 2014.

cash — Cash, left, and Tango, bottom right, are missing. Oakley, top left, is a dog the head of Lost Pets of Omaha Area recently took in after a friend died.

PATTY MINSHALL

Omahan Patty Minshall has been in the hospital for more than a month, and during that time, her three dogs have gone missing. She found out Thursday that one, Rah Rah, had been hit by a car and killed.

In another blow, her house was broken into and ransacked while she was in the hospital.

“I’m on dialysis for end-stage renal disease,” Minshall said. “My dogs are my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do without them.”

Chihuahuas Tango and Cash, both around 8, were last seen at a home around 40th and Spaulding Streets or Fontenelle Boulevard toward the end of September.

There have been no recent signs of the dogs, which Minshall has owned for years.

Because of her health issues, she doesn’t plan to keep the dogs once she is released from the hospital in a few weeks. She won’t be able to return to her house in north Omaha.

tango — Tango’s owner is in the hospital and trying to find her lost dogs.

PATTY MINSHALL

“I’m trying to get them into permanent safe homes,” she said. “I have to make sure they are safe first.”

Minshall said she was hospitalized because of an infection. She knew she was getting worse, but she wanted to make sure she had a safe place for her dogs to stay. That spot didn’t work out, and the dogs are missing.

“I will do anything to get my dogs returned home,” she said. “This has devastated me.”

Cathy Eaton, the head of Lost Pets of Omaha area, said it’s a difficult and emotional decision when ill pet owners need to find a place for their pets to go when they can no longer care for them.

She and her family have come up with an agreement that they will care for each other’s pets if something would happen to one of them.

Although they already had three dogs, she and her husband, Rich, recently took in a yellow lab that belonged to a friend who died of cancer. None of the friend’s children could take him.

“He’s adorable,” she said of 5-year-old Oakley. “He’s so sweet. His mom said her biggest concern was that he would have a caring home.”

She also reminds owners to get their pets chipped. Lost Pets has an agreement with a local veterinarian to chip animals for $10. Message Lost Pets if you would like information about the $10 chip.

Eaton says if people have seen the missing dogs or have them, they can message the Lost Pets of Omaha area Facebook page. Their identity will remain anonymous.

“You never know when it’s going to help,” she said. “It’s just going to take the right person who knows where they are at.”