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[UPDATE] Greyhound community rallies to find missing dog in Burnaby

The Lower Mainland greyhound community has mobilized over the last week to find one of their own. Daniel, a brindle greyhound, slipped out of an open door near the Vancouver-Burnaby border on Nov. 26 and took off into Burnaby.
Daniel, greyhound
Greyhounds and owners gather at Burnaby North Secondary School Sunday to form a search party to look for Daniel, a greyhound that ran away on Nov. 26.

The Lower Mainland greyhound community has mobilized over the last week to find one of their own.

Daniel, a brindle greyhound, slipped out of an open door near the Vancouver-Burnaby border on Nov. 26 and took off into Burnaby.

He hasn’t been home since.

On Sunday, about 15 fellow greyhounds and their owners met at North Burnaby Secondary School (the place Daniel was most recently sighted) and formed a search party to look for him.

“It’s amazing, the response, from day one,” Daniel’s owner, Nicole Yuen told the NOW. “The first night we had six strangers going out. I’d never met them before in my life. They’re out with the dogs, searching in the night in the rain.”

Yuen adopted Daniel, an ex-racer from Florida, through the Northwest Canada Greyhound League in early September.

He is the first dog in the family, which had been cats-only until he arrived, according to Yuen.

Since Daniel’s disappearance, Yuen has been overwhelmed at the support she’s gotten from greyhound lovers near and far, with people calling from as far away as Vancouver Island and Washington State, offering help.

Closer to home, members of the Lower Mainland Greyhounds and Sighthounds Facebook group have helped spread the word and joined various search parties.

“I’m joking with them that, like, we say cat people are crazy. Cat people got nothing on greyhound people,” Yuen said. “They’re bonkers, man, but in a totally good way.”

Daniel was last seen at SFU Burnaby Monday.

“People got really close to him, but he would end up running off before people could get hold of him,” Yuen said.

The best thing Good Samaritans can do if they spot him is to call Yuen, she said, since trying to catch him will probably scare him away.

“He’s a very skittish dog,” she said. “He gets really anxious around strangers, but I’m hoping that he’s hungry enough that his hunger’s going to overwhelm his stranger danger.”

Weatherwise, there’s no reason Daniel shouldn’t be OK, even given the cold, wet conditions over the last few days, according to Judy Miller, treasurer of the Northwest Canada Greyhound League.

“The temperatures are not freezing,” she said. “(Greyhounds) tend to nest, so we hope he has found these really dense forest areas where he can get shelter and make himself a nest.”

Miller said a greyhound recently went missing in Alberta for three weeks in -10 weather and survived. “Hopefully we get Daniel back, and I know that’s all that people want, but I don’t know how I could ever make it up to people for this,” Yuen said of the community’s support.

Anyone who has information about Daniel, who is wearing tags and a microchip, should phone Yuen at 604-762-0747.