Driving in the Felton area, Bill Moser looks out his car window in search of his recently adopted dog Buck, who ran off Wednesday night. Mr. Moser recently adopted the Great Pyrenees after his longtime canine companion Ace had to be euthanized. (Delaware State News/Marc Clery)
FELTON — This has turned into the darnedest game of hide-and-seek that Bill Moser has ever been a part of.
Less than a week after Mr. Moser adopted Buck, a 19-month-old Great Pyrenees, his newfound acquaintance was spooked by a loud noise, escaped through a fence in the yard and ran off into the night on Wednesday.
Buck hasn’t been caught since.
Mr. Moser, and several others in the Felton community, continued to vigilantly search for Buck but their efforts came up empty throughout the day Thursday.
“It’s amazing we haven’t found him yet … darned dog,” Mr. Moser said. “You’d think something that big would be easy to spot. We called and the Animal Control people have a description of him up on their website and I called the First State Animal Center and all.
“Heck, I even called an animal communicator, Martha Grace, who is on the Internet. She said she’d contacted (Buck) and he’s sitting in an open field where there was a dull red barn and a yellow tractor and a line of pine trees. If you think about it, that could be anywhere out here.”
Buck
Mr. Moser was just getting to know Buck, who became his new best friend immediately after he was introduced to him last Friday.
He was forced to have Ace, another Great Pyrenees, euthanized at the Middletown Animal Hospital on Nov. 15 after the dog experienced organ failure at the age of 13 years, 11 months old.
Mr. Moser had an appointment to get Buck neutered and have a GPS microchip put into him on Jan. 19.
He said they were getting along just fine. Then, at around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, everything turned upside down.
“Buck was getting to the point where he would go outside in the yard and not cling to me,” said Mr. Moser. “So he was outside sitting and chewing on one of those rawhide bones.
“Somebody came down the road Wednesday night firing a gun out of the window — well they said it was fireworks — but it was too loud to be fireworks. Whatever it was it spooked him and he broke out of the fence and went.”
Mr. Moser was in the shower when Buck went darting off and was alerted by his neighbor Jeannie Fabi, who came knocking on his door.
One of her daughter’s friends said they saw the big white dog trotting down the road and when he stopped to get him he bolted off again.
“I rode around until it was like 2:30 (Thursday) morning,” Mr. Moser said. “I saw him going down Sportsman Road. He was trotting, not quite a run, and I stopped and called him and he kept on going so I called him some more.
“I finally got in front of him and I called him and he dashed off into the woods. So we went up Marshyhope Road and we saw Buck around midnight or so, and that was the last time that we saw him.”
Mr. Moser said Ms. Fabi helped spread the word out about Buck’s disappearance through social media.
There were dozens upon dozens of posts on Facebook on the Felton Harrington Online yardsale page regarding Buck, some of which claimed to have caught glimpses of the dog and others offering prayers and best wishes for finding him.
On Thursday afternoon, Amy Jarrell wrote on Facebook, “When I saw him last night he was by the goats on marsheyhope road.”
Debbie Wisk added, “We saw his eyes coming down the road last night ..as soon as he got to the goats..an saw headlights he shot into the woods.”
There were all kinds of sightings, just no solutions — yet.
“I’m not on social media,” Mr. Moser said. “You could say I’m a dinosaur. I don’t even know how to work a smart phone. But if it will help me get Buck back then I’m all for it.
“This is just an amazing community.”
For Mr. Moser, the search continues.