Hi, my name is Amanda Barber and as many of you know my family and I’s world was flipped upside down back on March 4th. Castle our beloved sheltie was let out to go potty and took off after a female fox that we believe was in heat. Thankfully even though he left here with his brother Sage, Sage returned that night on his own. While Castle went into compete survival mode and continued on his journey that night. We went from being in the very southern part of Erie county into Cattaraugus county. Where the very last sighting of him was on 3/7.

We were up and down and all over for a month walking, driving, having drones in the air, to talking to residents with no such luck in anyone seeing Castle. He now disappeared completely off the map. During all of this we also had Castle’s 2 brothers back at home missing their alpha male. They were so lost without him that it started affecting their mental health. After many trips to the vet to get them back on their feet it’s became very costly as for we didn’t want to take any chances of losing another dog. They’re our babies and will do anything for them.

Finally, on April 16th we had 2 confirmations that Castle had been sighted just a mile in a half from home. My trapper went and set up traps and food plots and while doing so she saw him with her own eyes. It was everything we’ve been waiting to hear. Some kind of hope that he was alive and a good possibility that we were finally closing in on him. Only to have the property owners retract their help to let us do what we needed to do to get him out of there. So once again we had to hit the reset button and redirect Castle. Again with no luck. Even with cameras, food plots, and scent trails Castle disappeared again for 2 more weeks.

Knowing I had no control over anything now I had to leave this in God’s hands to guide him in the right direction. As of yesterday 5/4 my trapper Julie called me to tell that a woman (God Bless her) had Castle in her back yard and needed me to get there now. In which I did as quick as I could. As soon as I knew Julie had him I dropped my my knees balling. Needless to say the first and foremost thing we needed to do was get him into the vet ASAP. He lost a ton of weight, had ticks on him and now has contracted another tick born illness, covered in burs, dehydrated, you name it the list goes on to all the things he’s been through. So with all the treatments that he needs to go through to get him back on his feet it has started to become very costly for his medical care. With the amazing community that we live in we are asking for continued support and any kind of donation is extremely appreciated to get this boy of ours back to being healthy. ❤️