Yorkregion.com - Georgina - Alzheimer’s patient on desperate hunt for missing dog
Alzheimer’s patient on desperate hunt for missing dog
Georgina
May 14, 2008 07:10 PM
By: John Slykhuis
There are times when Lillian McCleverty realizes her beloved little dog Joey is missing and she dissolves into tears. The 85-year-old Keswick resident is heartbroken because she hasn’t seen Joey since he disappeared from the backyard April 17.
Mrs. McCleverty, who has Alzheimer’s disease, has moments when she can’t remember, but those moments don’t last very long.
When she came home from the adult daycare centre every afternoon, she would be greeted by an enthusiastic Joey.
“He’d get up and run right over. Her face would just light up. He wouldn’t leave her side,” volunteer caregiver Lesley Blank said.
“How’s my little Joey!” Mrs. McCleverty would say, gathering the wriggling schnauzer in her arms.
At first Ms Blank told her Joey was at the vet’s, hoping he would be found. The day after she said, “I guess little Joey is still at the vet”. Then she would demand to see him and break down crying. When she persisted in asking, she was finally told the truth.
“We tried everything to find him,” Ms Blank said. Calls were made to every veterinarian’s office, the Georgina animal shelter and the OSPCA. Ms Blank and others scoured the neighbourhood, passed the word to anyone they saw and put up posters.
Her son, Sean McCleverty, with whom she lives, has offered a reward.
Curiously, posters put up in the Metropolitan Crescent area, where Joey was last seen, are continually torn down, Ms Blank said.
“We don’t know if he’s dead or alive. He’s blind and has diabetes, so he needs insulin regularly,” she said.
Mrs. McCleverty got Joey about 10 years ago, after her husband, George, died.
The McClevertys were lifelong Markham residents and devoted churchgoers.
Lillian worked at Laidlaw Transport where the energetic, feisty lady was known affectionately as Laidlaw Lillian.
“Everything revolved around her family, church and dog. She is a very kind and generous person,” Ms Blank said.
“Physically, Lillian is fit, but the Alzheimer’s is getting worse.”
She wants the dog back, dead or alive.
“Then at least we would have an answer and we could get on with it. I’m sure someone has him or knows what happened or we would have found him or his body,” she said.
Joey also answers to Lillian’s other names for him: Joseph or Jo-Jo. He had on a blue collar with cloth Christmas theme covering.