Dog Owner Seeks Closure One Year After Boxer's Disappearance

One year ago on Monday, Rocky the Boxer ran away. From time to time, residents sighted Rocky but he never returned home.

This week, Rocky’s original foster mom continues to mourn the loss of the boxer.

“It’s going to be a very emotional week,” Cherilyn Bain said. “My life is so different now from a year ago. I don’t know whether to be thankful or to keep crying about it.”

Bain took Rocky in from a breeder and was training him prior to putting him up for adoption. Rocky hadn’t been socialized and struggled to do every day dog functions, she said. He lived with Bain for several months before being adopted by a Forked River family.

Rocky ran away just as he was arriving at the home of his new adoptive family, she said.

“It was horrible,” Bain said.

Search groups spent many months looking for Rocky.

“I was teary eyed all day,” Bain said on the one-year anniversary of Rocky’s disappearance. “It’s so hard not knowing what happened.”

Bain, who does not live locally, has become very fond of Forked River after spending so much time searching for Rocky, she said. To this day, she still receives tips but none of them lead to Rocky.

“At this point, we just want to know that he’s somewhere safe,” Bain said. “Volunteers and followers go out there just trying to find answers. Just the not knowing is very hard.”

Roxanne McConnell continues to assist in the search.

“We still drive around and look and talk to people and try to get the word out there still,” she said. “We go back to his last sighting.”

Rocky was last spotted in January in the woods near Clearview Street, McConnell said.

“Our guts are telling us that somebody has him. He couldn’t have disappeared like that,” she said. “We’re not looking to take him away. If he’s happy and well taken care of, (Bain) relinquishes ownership of him. We just want to know.”

Small groups continue to get together to brainstorm, check local boxers and stores selling dogs, she said.

“We just want to be at peace with everything. He touched a lot of hearts,” McConnell said.

Bain described Rocky as a loving dog.

“He was scared of people but he was just such a sweetheart. He had such a good heart and a good soul,” she said. “He loved my other two dogs and absolutely loved my son. There was definitely a bond there.”

If Rocky was still loose and living in the woods, someone would have sighted him by now, Bain said, adding that someone must have taken him in by now.

“We just keep pleading our case. Just let me know he’s safe. Just put our minds at rest,” she said. Calls of Rocky’s whereabouts can be made anonymously.

Since Rocky went missing, Bain has assisted and mentored others who lost their dogs, she said, including Scooter the Beagle. Scooter went ran off in March and but was reunited with his family just days later.

“Scooter was a very successful one. That was a wonderful reunion for everyone involved,” Bain said.

Bain encourages those with missing pets to ask for help.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We spent the first week down there just walking around aimlessly,” she said. “You can’t be everywhere all the time. There are a lot of people out there willing to help…I’ve met a really great group of people through this journey that will be a part of my life forever now.”

If you are aware of Rocky’s whereabouts call 848-448-4542 or visit www.facebook.com/HelpFindRocky.

“I’ve shed so many tears this last year. I carry the burden,” Bain said. “It never crossed my mind that I was sending him off and I would never see him again.”