Family take to the air in hunt for beloved pet
IS this the extraordinary dog search yet? A family in Castleton are so desperate to find their missing pet they have chartered a light aircraft and enlisted the help of a medium to look for her.
Two-year-old border collie Molly has not been seen since she escaped from the family’s yard after being spooked by a most lost firework Night.
And since then owners Steve and Ellen Lomax, who run haulage firm Lomax Transport Services, have gone to remarkable lengths to try find her.
Hundreds of people have also joined search parties for her, drones have been flown over the area and a Facebook campaign has been viewed and shared thousands of times.
Olympic gold medal winning hockey star on Bonfire Nicola White, who grew up in Littleborough, has also joined in the campaign retweeting the appeal.
Family friend Julie Mayall, of Marland, is helping to organise the search.
She said: “Steve and Ellen are distraught, they are really struggling.
“Molly is like a child to them. We are just trying to do everything to we can to get her back.
“Family and friends have been searching frantically for over two weeks through fields, canals, brooks, countryside, roads, farms, golf courses - you name it, it has been searched, but as yet we have not had a single sighting of Molly.
“The response has been massive. People who don’t even know the family are going out at all hours of the day and night to search for her. It’s been amazing.”
It’s not the first time drones have been used to search for a last dog in Rochdale.
Earlier this month the Observer reported how toy poodle Bella, who went missing while being walked on the moors above Littleborough, was found after a similarly determined search.
Drones armed with heat-seeking cameras were flown above the hills, search parties of horse riders scoured the moors and a pack of sniffer hounds were also deployed after threeyear-old Bella ran off while being walked by family friend Ben Snape on Blackstone Edge.
And the remarkable efforts paid off when the pooch was found five days later on Blackstone Edge Road by a workman who was driving past.