UPDATE: A person who saw this story on Local 12 turned in Toby. Toby and Karen Gibso have been reunited.
CINCINNATI (WKRC) – A Houston woman’s visit to Cincinnati took a heartbreaking turn Tuesday when her service dog vanished.
Karen Gibson said she depends on Toby, a two-year-old Shih Tzu, due to her vision problems.
“He helps me not to walk into things,” said Gibson.
Gibson flew to Cincinnati last month with Toby to visit friends and family. But now a day before she is supposed to fly home, she has no idea where Toby is.
“I’ve been crying for the last 24, 48 hours,” she said.
Gibson last saw Toby Tuesday around 4 p.m. at a friend’s home on Hartwell Avenue near Galbraith.
Gibson and her friend were bringing in groceries. Toby was in the yard.
“So, when I came out, he asked me was Toby with me and I said, ‘No, he was not,’” said Gibson.
She estimates she and her friend were only inside the house for about 30 seconds to a minute before they noticed that Toby was missing.
She believes it is possible that someone drove up and took him.
“They could have, ‘Here pretty puppy, come here,’ and he could have ran up and they snatched him and was gone,” said Gibson.
Gibson said Toby is trained not to wander, and even if he did, she does not believe he could have gotten very far on account of his short legs.
“He couldn’t have run away or out of our sight that fast,” she said.
Toby usually wears a collar with a Texas-shaped rabies tag along with a small bell.
If Gibson does not find him before her Thursday evening flight home, she said she may have to stay in Cincinnati.
“I won’t go home and not have him with me,” she said.
Gibson said she is prepared to offer a reward for Toby’s safe return.
She is asking anyone who knows where he is to call her friend at 513-462-1640.