Cork woman appeals for help to find pet dog that ‘vanished into thin air’

Sinéad Folan told The Corkman that she has owned Ruby for three and a half years and that the rescue dog, aged around 13 or 14, has got osteoarthritis and is also nearly blind. Sinéad said that given Ruby’s condition and general lack of enthusiasm for walks, it is surprising that her dog disappeared from outside a friend’s house she was helping to clean on Monday.

“I brought Ruby up with me on Monday afternoon and she was in the sitting room but she wouldn’t settle and all the doors were open. So, she was pottering in and out and I was just keeping an eye on her,” Sinéad said.

“Then, all of a sudden, she was gone. She was nowhere to be seen, it was like she vanished into thin air.”

After briefly returning to her own home to care for her other foster dog, Sinéad returned to where Ruby went missing from, which is in a “remote” area with a forest nearby, but had no luck in finding her pet.

With the assistance of friends, Sinéad carried out more searches for Ruby on Tuesday and Wednesday but these also proved unfruitful.

One theory is that a fox may have taken the small dog, but Sinéad said she finds it difficult to believe that this is what happened.

“[Ruby] wasn’t the kind of dog who liked to be picked up. She would have screamed or barked if a fox had tried to take her, I would have heard,” Sinéad said.

Sinead said that she has notified the Gardaí and the CSPCA of Ruby’s disappearance. She’s also posted to Facebook about her missing dog, and she said she has received a “huge response” from people offering help and advice.

Sinéad has urged anyone that might have come across Ruby to get in touch.