Mav is our 8 month old Golden Retriever that went missing after my daughter was in a car accident!
11/10/2024
This is the last public post I will make about our sweet Mav that went missing after the accident and our crazy 8 days that he was missing!
Mav was picked up by someone in a red car on the interstate on Halloween. We were sent a tip at 9pm on Friday while out with the guy with the drone. The tip was a screenshot of a Facebook post of a girl holding Mav. Once we had confirmation that this person who posted had picked up a dog on the interstate and that he had been picked up on Halloween we immediately contacted the authorities since a police report had been filed. The person (and no I’m naming them bc it’s not my place, they can decide if they want to be named or not) who took Mav told us they thought someone was basically dumping the dog. They claimed they never saw anything on facebook and that they brought Mav to a vet and this vet couldn’t find a chip. At that point the guy who found Mav stated that he really didn’t want to give Mav back because his children had already fallen in love with Mav but that he understood because he had lost a dog before. We asked him to please send us an address of where he was and let us know he was on vacation in Pensacola. We asked him for a pin of his location and that we would come. He obliged and gave us the address. We agreed that we would meet him at 7am in Pensacola to get Mav back. We arrived in Pensacola around 6:40am and met with Escambia county sheriffs department to arrange a safe exchange. At approximately 7am, the Escambia county sheriffs office contacted the guy who had Mav and he obliged and came out and turned Mav over to us. There was no drama, no arguing it was a very peaceful turn over. This guy has children and we wanted to be respectful of the fact that regardless of the situation or how we felt about it, his children were a priority. We thanked him for returning him and we left. From there we came straight back to Metairie to bring Mav to Clearview Vet, who had advised us that Mav would need a full work up just to check him out. This is normal protocol for any dog who’s been lost to make sure they’re ok! The vet checked Mav throughly including bloodwork, stool samples etc and Mav was perfectly fine! They also scanned for his microchip which picked up immediately. At that point we were elated that we officially had Mav back. We do not care what the man who took Mav intended to do. It’s irrelevant because we have him and that’s all that matters. We do not wish any ill will towards him because at the end of the day he saved Mav from being hit and killed on I-10. We got him back and that’s that! Praise Jesus!!!
The wonderful person who sent us the screenshot of the Facebook post of the woman holding Mav was sent to us via Facebook messenger around 9pm on Friday. It took us about 10 hours from there before we had Mav in our arms. She was notified immediately that we had gotten Mav back. I sent her my cell number and we have talked several times. We have arranged to meet on Monday to give her the reward. We’ve told her that we felt like because of the craziness that has ensued we would not post her name publicly. It’s up to her if she’d like to come forward and say she was the person who gave us the tip.
Lastly, we want to thank the many people who stepped up to help us find Mav. The ones who sent prayers and positive thoughts, the ones who gave money to Excel for signs, the ones who printed flyers, the ones who spent hours walking and handing out flyers, the ones who called and texted and invested their time for 8 days to find Mav. The trolls and the crazies will always have something to say. Mav was and still is being trained to be a nut allergy detection dog for Gracie who has been allergic to nuts her entire life. I deactivated the page not because we didn’t want to share anymore. I deactivated the page because my child was followed into places and my child was being completely harassed!
What should’ve been one of the most Glorious days was quickly turning into witch-hunts and vigilantes. We are trying to now find our peace and move on and we ask that you do the same. We know that this too shall pass. Please keep in mind, these people making comments about us, who we are and our intentions etc have no clue who we are!!! We have the strongest faith and we know that those who truly know who we are know that we are good people. We will continue to pray for all the evil people saying evil things about us. This puts a lot of things into perspective for us. The ugliness in this world will always try to shine brighter than the good. But we will continue to spread the good news of the Lord and why he deserves all of the praise because essentially he is the one who brought Mav back to us. For now let’s rejoice in our prayers being answered and that Mav is home!!!
