'Overwhelmed by acts of human kindness:' heartfelt thanks from owners of missing Poulton dog Ralph

Two-year-old Ralph, a grey and tan French Bulldog from Poulton, went missing in a field at the end of Little Poulton Lane at around midday on Saturday (October 31).

His owners Sharon Mather and Sam Matthews have extended their thanks to the community for rallying to help find their pet, who is also a therapy dog for Sam who suffers with MS.

A Facebook group was set up earlier this week in a bid to find him, which has amassed over 2,000 kind-hearted members of the public.

A Go Fund Me has also been set up, where generous members of the public are donating to a reward fund.

Sharon said: "We have been completely overwhelmed by the response and the amount of people who have wanted to help us to find Ralph.

"It's been wonderful to see the acts of human kindness, and everyone has been amazing.

"We could never repay everyone for the help they have given to us, it's totally blown us away. We've had our tears and tantrums, but now we just need to ride the storm and hope we get him home soon."

Hundreds of people in the Poulton and wider communities have extended offers of assistance, from walking their dogs in the area while looking around for Ralph, to spreading the word online.

Today, leaflets will be distributed among the community in the hope someone either knows where he is, or spots him outdoors.

Ms Mather continued: "Ralph would never willingly go near water, and he hates to get wet, so when a torrential downpour started he just ran off and I have no idea where he went.

"We are responsible dog owners and we treat all three of our dogs like they're our family, nothing like this has ever happened before and he's never run off.

"We've been to put a kennel and some food out for him where he went missing and we've even had four people with drones helping us to look as well.

"The generosity from everyone has been such a lovely indicator that humans really do care."

Ralph was wearing a blue Julius K9 harness with a name tag and Sharon's contact details on it when he went missing.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact her on 07740900030.