When her beloved German shorthaired pointer went missing, Desiree Henderson sprang into action.
She papered the neighbourhood with missing posters of her best friend, Ajax. She hand-delivered thousands of flyers. And she built a "Rover command centre" in her home to organize it all.
"I've contacted airlines, real estate agents, running clinics, anyone in the community...in the hopes somebody has seen my dog," Henderson told CTV News. "He needs to come home."
Last December, Ajax disappeared from Henderson's Cloverdale backyard near 186th Street and 58th Avenue.
"I saw this gate open," she recalled. "And I ran so fast to the park."
But Ajax wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere, and that day, Henderson's crusade began.
Her command centre is a room dedicated to the search for Ajax. She has maps of areas she has hand-delivered flyers to. She has put in newspaper ads as far away as Montana.
Clippings, e-mails, photos -- the history of an all-consuming four-month mission.
The cost has reached thousands of dollars -- but she's not giving up.
"I could probably have bought my dog five times over. Don't tell my husband that," said Henderson.
"But you can't put a price on how much I love him," she said.
This weekend, Henderson and others who have lost dogs are banding together, stuffing envelopes for a province-wide mass mail out to 600 veterinarians.
With just a few more dollars, and a few more hours, Henderson believes it will all pay off.
"He is coming home," she said. "I just need a little help."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
If you have seen Ajax, e-mail Henderson at extremeoutdoors@shaw.ca.
